Dance The Night Away
by fmdevil
Summary: On a new island,the crew participates in a dance competition to earn some money.When Nami and Sanji's duo fail,yet Zoro and Robin's duo succeed because of Zoro's hidden dance talents,Nami makes him pratice nightly with her until the next competition.
1. Chapter 1

**So finally, my first multi-chap. This one takes place sometime after the Fishman Arc assuming no new members join the crew.**

**For the record, I do not own One-Piece.**

**Dance the Night Away**

**Chapter 1**

Somewhere in the New World. The Straw-hat Pirates, along with their trusted ship The 1,000 Sunny, sail forward onto the next island, and with each new island they come to, new adventures await.

As they approach an island, they all gather on the deck next to the helm, waiting with anticipation of what they might find. At first their eyes are met with large cliffs surrounded by jagged rocks leaving no place for them to weigh anchor. On top of the cliffs sits a towering forest, with trees taller than the eye can see. They can hear the rumblings of the ground, and the roaring of what they can only guess as the enormous animals that inhabit the forest.

Now determined to step foot on the island, they circle the land mass looking for a possible entry point. As they come around a bend, they are astonished to see a large city just on the edge of the forest. The city is busy with music, bright lights, and very active people.

"So Cool!" Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper exclaim excitedly with stars replacing their eyes.

As a large port came into view, the Straw-hats were surprised to find its' docks filled with ships of all kinds. Commercial-Liners, Navy-Battleships, and Pirate-Ships all floated on the calm waters in harmony with one another.

They cautiously approached the dock. As they dropped their anchors, they noticed a man in a clean black suit with a white shirt and bow-tie approach their ship. "Hello Straw-hat Pirates!" The man yelled up from the dock. "Allow me to welcome you all to the island of Shaka! Home of New World's famous Las-Jaeger City!" The man finished his welcome with a polite bow.

Back on the ship the Straw-hats were huddled together discussing how they should proceed.

"Ah, Las-Jaeger is it?" Questioned the skeletal Brook. "I have heard manager-san speak of this place. He always wanted me to perform here, but besides that, I don't know anything about the place."

"Then let's go explore!" Shouted Luffy.

"Not yet baka!" Yelled Nami as she violently brought her fist down on top of her captain's head. "We can't just go exploring this place without any information. Can't you see all the Navy-Battleships docked here?"

"Nami-swan is so beautiful and smart," Sanji gushed with his visible eye turning into a heart, "she always knows the right thing to do before any of you other shit-heads, excluding Robin-chwan of course."

"Tch." Zoro responded to Sanji's confession of love.

"You say something, shitty-cyclops-marimo?"

"Only that your pathetic, retarded-love-cook."

Just before a fight broke out between the two, Nami intervened with a quick punch to both of their heads as well. "Would you two knock it off for 5-seconds?"

"I agree with Nami-san." Stated Robin. "We should find out some information about this island to ensure we are not in any serious danger. Maybe someone should go talk to the gentleman on the dock?"

"I'll do it." Luffy said excitedly raising his hand into the air.

"Like hell you will." Usopp said, joining in on the conversation.

"Why not?"

"Because you won't pay any attention and will probably just run off."

"Robin and I will go." Nami stated. "The rest of you will stay on the ship until we give you the clear."

Robin and Nami exited the Sunny, and approached the man on the dock who had greeted them. "Hello sir." Robin spoke. "Would you mind if we asked you a few questions?"

"Not at all." The man responded with a slight nod of the head.

-0-0-0-0-

After several minutes of discussing with the man, the two female pirates made their way back onto the ship to convey their newfound knowledge with the rest of the crew. They all gathered in the Aquarium Bar to hear the findings. Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, and Brook all sat on the floor crossed legged eagerly awaiting to hear the information from Robin and Nami who sat next to each other on the curved couch that surrounded the room. Franky took a seat in one of the chairs around the mast directly facing the two women, while Sanji stood near the door to not bother others with his cigarette. Zoro had lain down on the opposite side of the room to take a nap.

They were told that the island was a safe-haven island that all were allowed to enter as long as no extreme acts of violence were committed. The occasional brawl was bound to happen, and would be tolerated as long as it didn't get out or control and no damage befell the city.

The city was surrounded by the huge forest that they had seen while circling the island and the forest was home to huge, dangerous creatures. The creatures would not venture into the city, but it was advised that no one should go into the forest either, because the animals were very territorial.

The log-pose took a full 10 days to set on the island (**author note: not sure how the navigation works in the New World yet, so for now I'm going with the old way**), but the greeter assured them it would only feel like 2 days because of the amount of entertainment in Las-Jaeger.

The city was home to many casinos and gambling establishments, as well as a large commercial area full of restaurants, nightclubs, hotels, and shops. It also was known for its' huge block parties that the casinos would put on hoping to fuel the public on free booze so they would gamble away their money. Las-Jaeger also liked to host several competitions for visitors and locals to showcase their talents. Prize money was given out to the winners of each of the competitions. This of course caught Nami's attention.

The man had given them a small map of the city which had a list of all the types of shops and restaurants, as well as their locations.

"Really? This place sounds so cool!" Luffy stated excitedly while uncrossing his legs and clapping his feet together, his trade mark grin plastered across his face. "I want to try all of the restaurants."

"Are there any books stores?" The young doctor inquired. "How about stores that specialize in medical equipment and supplies?"

"As a matter of fact, yes there are." Robin answered Chopper. "There are several book stores in the commercial area, as well as one large medical supply store. I would be happy to go with you if you like."

Soon the entire crew was bombarding the women with questions. Franky wanted to know if there were shops where he could get mechanical supplies, so he could improve on some of his weapon designs. Sanji wanted to know about the local markets, while Luffy wanted to know the best places to get meat.

"We have plenty of time for all of that later." Nami interrupted, wanting to get everyone back on the same page. "I think we should look into some of these competitions first. It will be a great chance to make some extra money. And since we are going to be here for ten days, we will need that money to stock up on supplies, and I wouldn't mind doing a little clothes shopping while we are here."

"Was there any competition you had in mind, Nami-sis?" Franky asked Nami.

"Yes, there was actually. There are three competitions going on tonight, but the one with the highest prize is a classical dance competition." Upon hearing the words 'classical dance' Zoro, who had been pretending to sleep, opened his one good eye so that he could pay closer attention the conversation. "The Bailey's Casino is putting it on, and the top prize is 500,000 beli."

"Sounds interesting." Robin stated. "But who will be participating?"

"Well," Nami placed her finger to her chin as she contemplated Robin's question, "since there is money on the line, I'll be participating for sure. I was hoping that you would like to participate as well, Robin. It would increase our chances of winning some of the prize money."

"I would love to Nami-san. It sounds fun. But who will our partners be?"

"Ohh, ohh, I'll do it if it's going to be fun!" Luffy exclaimed, while raising his hand and waving it in the air.

"Like hell, you shitty-rubber-bastard!" Sanji screamed. "If anyone is going to dance with Nami-swan or Robin-chwan it's going to be me. Besides, Nami-swan said it is a classical dance competition. The only dancing I've ever seen you do is when you stick chopsticks in your nose and jump around like an idiot."

"But that is a classical dance." Protested the young captain.

"That is not even dancing!" The cook was becoming infuriated with the young man before him. "Classical dance is ballroom dancing, the waltz, or the tango. It is something a gentleman participates in. Not something a classless monkey or an ugly brute like the marimo would know anything…"

"I'll do it." The entire crew turned their attention on to Zoro, who was no longer lying on the curved couch, but sitting in an upright position with a very serious look on his face.

"What was that kenshi-san?" Robin asked the swordsman with a bewildered look on her face.

"The competition. I'll compete in it." Zoro responded with a certainty to his voice.

"You do realize this is a dancing competition right, Zoro?" The navigator asked the first-mate with a slight mocking tone.

"I said I'd compete didn't I? What's the problem?"

"I think we should let kenshi-san compete. He seems quite confident." Robin didn't even try to hide the amused smile on her face.

"Fine by me. Zoro still owes me money anyway, so if he wins, his portion of the prize money goes to pay off part of his debt." Nami said smugly. "So, Zoro will partner with…"

"Robin." Zoro interrupted Nami.

"What?" The orange-haired girl asked, confused by firmness of his voice.

"I'll partner with Robin."

"Hey shit-head, don't go deciding things on your own!" Sanji yelled at Zoro, but the latter didn't even acknowledge the blonde.

Nami was taken aback by Zoro's firm statement. She wasn't sure why she felt this way; the truth is she was going to partner Zoro with Robin anyway, but the tone and certainty of his voice made it seem that it was obviously the only choice. Nami couldn't help but feel slightly pissed that Zoro wouldn't even consider pairing with her. '_What the hell would be so bad about partnering with me?_' She thought to herself. "Fine, than I will partner with Sanji."

"It will be my pleasure Nami-swan!" Gushed the cook.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Zoro asked, while cocking his head to the side.

"What? Do you have a better suggestion?" Retorted the navigator.

"Well, you did say this was going to be classical dancing. Wouldn't it be smarter to partner with Brook?" Zoro responded. "He is older, and probably more familiar with the classical styles."

"Oi, you trying to start something marimo?"

Nami couldn't deny that there was some logic in Zoro's statement, but the thought of dancing with the skeleton sent shivers down her spine. While pointing a judging figure towards Brook, Nami stated firmly "There's no way I'm dancing with that thing. Sanji is fine."

"Nami-san, it breaks my heart that you feel that way towards me." Brook stated, seeming somewhat depressed. "But then again, I have no heart to break! Yohohoho!"

-0-0-0-0-

Sometime later that evening. The four participants had changed into more formal attire. Sanji had donned a white jacket and pants combo, with a black shirt, black shoes, and white tie to complete his outfit. Zoro had decided to go with a black jacket and pants combo, with a red shirt that he left the collar undone, no tie, a red handkerchief that he had placed it his front pocket, he wore his green haramaki under his jacket, and completed the look with his red sash around his waist and his swords tucked into the sash.

The two female members of the Straw-hats had chosen to go with evening dresses. Robin had chosen a Royale Purple Taffeta Halter Sleeveless Floor-length dress with a keyhole neckline and a wrap skirt which accented her curves very well. Nami decided to go with a Black Chiffon Sleeveless V-Neck Floor-length dress with a high side front slit and flowing train, she looked absolutely stunning.

After the four were dressed, the entire crew had made their way across town to the casino to sign up for the competition. After signing in, the five non-participants were shown the way to the seating area. Being quests of a participating party, they were allowed to sit in the front row. Nami, Sanji, Robin, and Zoro were all led to a backstage area, where they would wait until their numbers were called. Since they were the last participants to sign up, Sanji and Nami's duo would go second to last, while Zoro and Robin's would be the last performance of the night.

Once entering the backstage area, the four pirates noticed several other duos in the area. The others groups were stretching, rehearsing their performances, or just lounging about. Realizing none of them had had time to rehearse, or plan for a routine, the two groups separated to discuss a game plan. Sanji and Nami had decided to perform a tango, which Sanji was very pleased with, while Robin and Zoro discussed their own performance.

"Well, did you have anything particular in mind kenshi-san?" The raven-haired beauty asked Zoro as he lay down onto a nearby couch.

"You're familiar with a traditional waltz, right?" The green-haired man responded, showing little interest and no concern on his face.

"Why yes I am."

"Then we'll do that." Zoro stated. "Just let me lead and I'm sure we'll do fine." Zoro then closed his eye, and proceeded to try to go to sleep until it was their time to perform.

Robin couldn't help but feel intrigued by this version of Zoro in front of her. She had always known him to be confident, but there was no sign of hesitation nor doubt radiating from the young man at all. He was certain that they would win. He didn't even doubt Robin's abilities. "Well, since that's decided, I'm going to step out for a moment. I'll be back before it is our turn to go on stage." Her only response from the swordsmen was a simple grunt. With an amused smile, she exited the backstage area, and made her way towards the gambling floor.

-0-0-0-0-

Robin returned sometime later during the third performance of the night. She watched quietly from the curtain area alongside Nami and Sanji as each group would perform their dances. They were all good in their own rights, but none were overly exceptional. The thing that caught the three pirates' interest the most was the scoring system.

The system wasn't overly complicated: It consisted of three judges who would grade the duos with score cards ranging from 0 to 10, ten being the highest score. They would then take the three scores and combine them. The duo with the highest combined score won.

All of the groups had been scoring in the low twenties until the group who performed right in front of Sanji and Nami; they had scored a solid twenty-five. The crowd clapped as the duo exited the stage. It was now Sanji and Nami's turn. The crowd grew silent as the announcer introduced them.

"The next contestants hail from the world famous Straw-hat crew!" The announcer bellowed in a captivating voice. "Tonight they will be performing a tango! Let's hear it for Black Leg Sanji, and Cat Burglar Nami!"

As the two walked out on stage they were greeted by the crowd with applause, as well as a few cat calls. But the largest reactions were from Luffy and the rest of the guys. "Come on, Nami-sis! Show em what ya got! Make sure it's SUPER" Franky Screamed while striking his signature pose. "Let's go Sanji!" Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper all cheered in unison.

They took their places in the center of the stage, and Sanji got down on one knee, taking Nami's hand into his own so he could lay a kiss onto the back of it. As he looked up at her, she could see the heart clearly visible in his eye. As the music started to play, he stood up from his kneeling position taking Nami's, as well as his own hand, into the air high above their heads. He then let go her hand leaving it suspended in the air as he snapped his fingers and clicked his heals on the ground.

What he did next came as a surprise to Nami, as he started to twirl around in a circle. She thought that he might have just been improvising, so she held her pose, with her hand still in the air waiting for him to take it so they could begin their dance. But he didn't stop twirling. Instead he only begun to twirl faster, and then proceeded to circle around her in his twirling motion. She remained in her pose hoping that his twirling would end soon, but it didn't. Instead she could hear him saying something during his motions. "Mellorine. Mellorine. Mellorine." He kept repeating.

"Sanji." She said his name, trying to get him to stop. "Sanji." He continued twirling. "Damn it Sanji!" Finally she broke her pose to bring her fist down on top of the man's head with enough force to cause his face to smash against the stage. "You idiot. Do you realize how much money you're costing me?"

The music stopped, and the crowd broke into a large fit of laughter. Nami then grabbed the barely conscious man by one of his legs and threw him towards her crew-mates in the front row, stomping in anger after him. Leaving the poor man mumbling about "Nami-swan is so beautiful when she is angry."

After the laughter died down, the judges gave their score. The first two judges gave them zeros because they were not impressed by the shenanigans of the two, while the last judge gave them a ten because it was the most entertaining moment of the night for him.

As the crowd calmed down the announcer started to introduce the final participants for the night. "The final performance of the night will be from two more members of the Straw-hat crew! They have decided to perform a traditional waltz! They are Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro, and Devil Child Nico Robin!"

The crowd started to clap once again to welcome them. Robin was the first to come on stage, but had to pause beside the curtains to get Zoro's attention. "The stage is this way kenshi-san."

The rest of the crew couldn't help but chuckle at their first-mate's obvious lack of direction. "I knew that." He said exiting the backstage area. Upon entering the stage area, he made his way over to where the rest of the crew was sitting, and he then removed his swords from his sash. "Here Brook, hold on to these for me." He handed the skeleton his swords, knowing they would be in the good hands of another swordsman.

"It would be my honor Zoro-san." Brook responded politely while grabbing Zoro's swords.

Zoro then crossed to the center of the stage so he and Robin could take their positions. He extended his left hand out from his body taking hold of her right hand, and he then placed his right hand on her waist, while she placed her left on his shoulder. They held their pose patiently waiting for the music to start.

"Good luck Robin-chwan!" Sanji shouted over the crowd. "You better not screw up marimo!"

'_You're one to talk._' The entire crew thought silently to themselves.

But Zoro did not respond to Sanji's taunt, instead his face took on a very serious demeanor. It was the face he made before going into battle. The crowd grew completely silent as a strange atmosphere surrounded the area. It was if they all knew that what would happen next was something they would all have to see.

When the music started, and the duo on stage started to move, all eyes widened. Forward 1-2-3, back 1-2-3, turn, repeat. The sight was truly amazing; Roronoa Zoro, the feared pirate swordsman, along with Nico Robin was dancing, and they were doing it with amazing grace and expertize.

As they were gliding across the dance floor, the expressions on the rest of the crew varied. Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper had stars in their eyes as they watched in amazement and awe. Franky had to lift his sunglasses from his eyes as he watched in pure disbelief. Sanji's expressions were the most comical as he went from love-struck because of Robin and her beauty, to fiery anger as he remembered who it was she was dancing with. No one could really tell what Brook's expression was; after all, he had no face to have expressions (Yohohoho).

Nami's expressions were the most surprising, even to her. She felt confused. Confused because of the jealousy she was feeling towards Robin. She found herself bringing her hand to up to her mouth so she could chew on her thumbnail as she watched her two nakama on the dance floor. '_What's going on? Why am I so jealous? Did I want to dance with Zoro? Or is it because Robin looks so beautiful out there?_' Nami was ripped from her thought at the sound of Sanji's voice beside her.

"Robin-chwan is so amazing." Sanji gushed with a heart in his eye. "Her skill and beauty can even make the shitty-marimo look good."

"Actually Sanji-san…" Brook interrupted the cook. "…unless my eyes deceive me. I would say that it is Zoro-san's skills that are making them so good. In fact, he seems to be picking up some of the slack from Robin-san's end. Then again, I have no eyes to see with. Yohohoho!"

As the crew took a closer look, they could see Brook was right. Zoro was definitely the better dancer of the two. Not that it mattered, because it was obvious that the two's performance was stealing the night's show.

As Zoro led Robin into a twirl, the crew was surprised to see a genuine smile across Robin's face. She was enjoying herself. This only furthered Nami's conflicted emotions. Nami wanted to be happy for her friend, but couldn't help being jealous of that happy feeling. She wanted that happy feeling for herself.

She was once again removed from her thoughts though, when the music started to slow down, and Zoro led Robin into a final dip. They held their pose for several seconds until the music stopped completely. They then stood upright, side by side, to take a final bow towards the crowd.

The entire crowd remained silent for several seconds trying to comprehend what they had just witnessed. It was Luffy that broke the silence first as he let loose with an earth shaking cheer. "Yosh!" The rest of the crowd quickly followed suit with loud applause and cheers. The entire crew showed their approval with excessive clapping and hollering, even Sanji had forgotten his jealousy towards Zoro for a brief moment. The only member not clapping was Franky; for he was too busy covering his eyes with his oversized forearm, insisting that he was not crying.

The announcer returned to the stage to quiet the crowd so they could hear the judges' final scores. The first judge scored the performance with a 9, the second scored it with an 8, and the final judge gave them a 10, securing Zoro and Robin's place as the rightful winners.

"And there you have it folks!" The announcer called over the crowd. "Tonight's champions, and the winners of the 500,000 beli grand prize! Roronoa Zoro, and Nico Robin!" As the crowd resumed cheering, the rest of the Straw-hats jumped up onto the stage to celebrate with their friends.

-0-0-0-0-

After leaving the dance arena, the crew made their way to the casino's gambling floor, where they were told they could collect their prize.

After receiving an envelope from the claim window, Zoro returned to the crew, except an absent Robin, only to have the envelope stripped from his hands by Nami. "I'll be holding on to that, thank you." The orange-haired woman said while rubbing the envelope to her face, with beli signs appearing in her eyes.

"Oi! What's the big deal woman?" Zoro snapped at the navigator. "Robin and I earned that."

"The prize money was supposed to go to the entire crew for food and supplies, remember?" She scolded the swordsman. "If there is any left over, I'll divide it evenly amongst the entire crew. Then again, you still owe me money, so I'll just keep your cut as a payment."

"Greedy witch."

"Oi! You watch your mouth when talking to Nami-swan, shitty marimo!"

"You want to start something, love cook!"

"Heh Zoro." Chopper spoke up, interrupting the two from their inevitable squabble. "None of us ever knew you could dance."

All eyes turned to Zoro with curiosity, waiting expectantly for a detailed explanation of how he had kept this secret from them. "No one ever asked." Was his simple response, causing them all to fall over comically.

As the crew started to stand, they noticed Robin approaching them with two envelopes in her hands. "Here you are kenshi-san. This is for you." She said while handing Zoro one of the envelopes.

Zoro peered inside the envelope to see it was filled with a large sum of money. "What is this?" He asked confused.

"Well, since you did most of the work, I decided I would split my winnings with you." Robin responded with a small smile on her face.

"Winnings? Winnings from what?" Nami asked.

"From the small wager I placed on kenshi-san and I to win." The archeologist responded as if was the most logical thing in the world. "After all, he seemed so confident that I couldn't help but feel like it was a sure bet."

"You can place bets on the competitions?" The orange-haired woman was stunned that she didn't know this information.

"Of course. This is a city known for gambling after all."

"So how much did you win?" Nami asked, dying to know how much was in the envelopes.

"Well…" Robin placed her hand under her chin while doing the math in her head. "… I placed a wager of 100,000 beli on kenshi-san and myself. And the payout was 32 to 1. So I won 3.2 million beli."

"And you gave half of it to Zoro?" Nami gasped, and Robin only nodded her head in response. "Zoro, give me that envelope."

Nami reached out to grab the envelope from Zoro's hands, but he was quicker to respond this time and was able to hold it out of her reach. "No chance." He stated firmly. "You heard Robin. I earned it."

"Yeah, but you still owe me money. So that envelope should belong to me." She tried arguing.

"Would you drop that already?" Zoro retorted back to the woman. "You know damn well that I don't owe you anything. I'm using this money to buy all the booze I can drink. If you're lucky, I might share."

"That gives me an idea." Luffy interrupted. "I say we have a party to celebrate. Captain's orders."

"That is a wonderful idea Luffy-san." Brook said approvingly. "As always, I'll provide the music."

"Sanji will cook the meat." Luffy said excitedly. "And since we know Zoro is an expert dancer now. He'll do the chopstick dance with us."

"Like hell!" Zoro yelled at his captain.

-0-0-0-0-

Back on the Thousand Sunny, the crew had partied into the early hours of the morning. It was nearing 3a.m., and most of the Straw-hats had retired for the evening, with only a few of them still remaining awake.

One of those still awake was Zoro, who had changed out of his formal attire immediately after returning to the ship, and was now wearing a comfortable pair of loose black pants and a simple white shirt. He had been given watch duty tonight, and was now making his way up the crows-nest with a bottle of Saki, hoping to get in a good workout and enjoy a quiet drink before his shift was over.

When he entered the crows-nest, he was surprised to see that he was not alone, as his eyes fell onto the navigator who was sitting on the bench that surrounded the room. She was absent mindedly staring out the window towards the town, with her chin resting in her hand. He couldn't help but notice how the moon light shining through the window accented her beautiful facial features, and her hair almost glowed in the dark room.

He stood quietly watching her for several moments, noticing for the first time that evening how truly beautiful she looked in her dress. Realizing he had been staring, and that he would have hell to pay if she caught him, he reluctantly decided to make his presence known by turning on the lamp.

The sudden light momentarily blinded her, bringing her from her thoughts, as she turned her head towards the scuttle-hole to see who had entered. But she didn't have to wait for her eyes to focus to know who it was as the unannounced guest broke the silence first. "Oi, woman, you know it's my night for watch right?" Zoro questioned her. "What are you still doing awake?"

"I was just thinking about some things." She responded after her vision had finally cleared.

Zoro simply shrugged and then proceeded to walk over to the bench, sitting down with a few feet between them. Then, bringing the bottle of Saki to his mouth, he removed the cork with his teeth before taking a big swig from it.

He couldn't help but notice that Nami was unusually silent. He turned to look at her, only to find her now staring in his direction. The look on her face was emotionless, similar to the one she had as she was staring out the window. Wanting to break the awkward silence, he found himself compelled to do something that would surprise the both of them. Reaching into his pocket, he removed the envelope that Robin had handed him earlier, and gently threw it into Nami's lap.

While picking up the envelope, Nami tilted her head to the side and gave the man an inquisitive look. "What's this?"

"It's the money Robin gave me. According to you, it's yours." Zoro stated nonchalantly while taking another swig from his bottle. "I just wanted enough to buy some booze."

She only responded with a simple "Oh, thanks."

Now Zoro was starting to get irritated. He had just thrown an envelope full of money at her, and her only reaction was to say 'thanks'. He was just about to yell at her, to snap her out of her melancholy trance when she interrupted him with a question.

"Heh Zoro? Why did you choose to dance with Robin?"

He was taken aback by the question. '_Where the hell did that come from?_' He thought. "Cause I wanted to win." He answered flatly.

"Oh? And you couldn't have won with me as your partner!" Nami raised her voice offended.

Now this was the Nami Zoro knew. "Tch. Are you saying you wanted to partner with me?"

"No, I was going to have you partner with Robin anyway!"

"So what's the problem?" Zoro asked, not understanding why she was getting upset.

"The problem is you wanted to partner with her! What would have been wrong with partnering with me!" Nami questioned while crawling across the bench to get into the swordsman's face.

"I could ask you the same question." Zoro spat back at her.

"I didn't know you were a good dancer!" By this time their foreheads were nearly touching as the argument continued. "If I had known, I would have made you partner with me so we could've won the competition instead."

"Do you even know how to do a traditional waltz?"

"I… well no, but…" Realizing the flaw in her logic, Nami sat back on the bench in defeat with a saddened look on her face.

Seeing her slip back into her melancholy state, Zoro knew he had to elaborate on his earlier decision. Because one thing was certain, he didn't like seeing Nami like that, it did not suit her at all. "I chose Robin because she is a bit older, as well as more worldly than most of the crew. I knew we didn't have time to practice, and she was more likely to know more classical types of dance." He paused to see if his words were having any effect on her, to find that a confused look had taken place of the sad one. "I'm more familiar with much older styles, while you're probably familiar with modern styles. Our styles just wouldn't have fit on such short notice."

"So what you're saying is…" She brought her hand up to her chin as she pondered his response. "We couldn't partner together because of the timing issue?"

Glad to see that the sad look was no longer present on her face, he gave a simple grunt as a response before taking another swig from his bottle.

"And if we had more time to prepare, you would have no problem partnering with me?" She continued, getting another grunt as well as a nod from him in response. "Alright, then it's a deal."

"Eh?" Zoro was confused by her last statement. '_What's a deal?_' He thought.

Seeing the confused look on his face, Nami decided to elaborate. "There is another dance competition on the same night the log-pose sets. It's a freestyle dance contest, and the pot is 2 million beli. You're going to participate with me as your partner." She said with a smug smile as Zoro could only stare blankly at her. "We have a total of eight nights to prepare. I'll make sure that both of us are scheduled for the watch sifts all week, and you will meet me here every night so we can practice. You will teach me traditional dancing, and I will teach you modern dancing. Is that understood?"

"And if I refuse?" He asked the orange-haired woman.

"With the size of your debt, I don't see how you could refuse. Or, do you not honor your debts?" She teased with a sly grin.

"I just handed you an envelope full of beli. You know damn well I don't owe you anything. Are you ever going to drop that crap?"

"Silly Zoro, do you really think this pocket change would pay off the amount of money you owe me?" She questioned him while waving the envelope in front of him. "After all, you went over two years without paying off a single beli of your debt. And with the amount of interest I charge, this isn't even a fraction of what you owe." She could see the anger starting to build up in his face; it was quite comical to her. "But I'll tell you what. If we win the competition, I'll erase your debt, free and clear."

Zoro grit his teeth together to not lose his cool and start screaming at the woman. "Completely clear?" He asked, realizing this was going to be his best chance at finally being free of her blackmail.

"Completely." She clarified. "Now, do we have a deal?" She asked as she extended her hand for him to shake it.

Zoro reluctantly extended his own hand. "Deal." Taking her hand into his own, he gave it a slight shake to confirm he was on board with her plans.

"Perfect." Nami stated as she stood from the bench and started to make her way to the scuttle-hole. "Now that we're at an understanding, you enjoy the rest of your watch. We start tomorrow night."

As Zoro watched Nami leave, he couldn't help but feel he had made a deal with the devil himself. Yet at the same time, there was something about the whole deal which excited him. He wasn't sure what it was, but the prospect of something good coming from this was already making him nervous with anticipation. '_If nothing else, this is going to be interesting._'

**End Chapter 1**

**Author note: So there's the first chap. As always; I would love to hear what you all think about it, and constructive criticism is always welcome.**

**I also will have to apologize ahead of time, because I don't know how often I'll be able to update this, and some chapters might be much shorter than others. I'm still hella busy right now, but will try to update when I can. I promise I will finish this, it might just take me some time.**

**As always, thanks for reading. –fmdevil-**


	2. Chapter 2

Well, I forgot to mention last time that several scenes in this story are inspired by music. There won't be any of those scenes in this chapter, but Robin and Zoro's dance in the last chapter was inspired by Skillet's song Comatose. From now on I'll mention which scenes and songs have inspired me at the end of the chapters.

Oh, and I got to give a big thank you to KimuraMinami! I was going to wait to see if a friend of mine could retrieve some of the files off my old computer so I didn't have to start this chapter from scratch, but she told me in a PM that she's expecting an update, and since she's been following all my stories from day one, I had to get to work right away. So, for all of you who wanted a quicker update, go thank her now. I'll wait…

Still don't own One Piece.

**Dance the Night Away: Chapter 2**

The following morning on the Sunny, the crew gathered in the dining area for breakfast. Breakfast went by like usual. Luffy trying to steal food, everybody defending their food, lots of yelling, and a few bumps on top of Luffy's head before it was all said and done.

After breakfast the crew all remained in the dining area to figure out what was on the agenda today. Nami took the head of the table to convey what she thought would be the best course of action. But she discovered that no one was really paying attention to her.

Zoro had immediately moved from the table to lie down on the couch next to the wall for his first nap of the day. Sanji was in the kitchen doing the dishes while having a cigarette. Robin remained sitting in her seat reading. While the rest of the men were engaged in a loud argument of how and why Zoro knew how to dance.

The stories had all varied between the men. Franky insisted that he had learned to dance because men who were not afraid to dance were super manly. Brook had suggested that Zoro had learned so that he could convince women to show him their panties. Luffy insisted that it wasn't a normal form of dancing, there for it was a mystery dance. The most elaborate story came from Usopp. According to him, Zoro must have learned to dance when he was younger. While lost in a forest, Zoro came upon a female wood nymph that needed to be rescued from an evil troll. The only way to defeat the troll was to best him in a dance. So the wood nymph cast a magical spell over Zoro, allowing him to be an expert dancer. After defeating the troll, the wood nymph made the spell permanent incase she would ever have to rely on Zoro's help again. Chopper believed every bit of the story, of course.

"Would all of you shut the hell up and pay attention?" Nami bellowed at the men in the room.

"Aye, Nami-Swan!" Sanji exclaimed, putting the dishes down and twirling over to the table so he could listen intently.

Nami, now having everyone's attention in the room, continued. "As I was trying to say before I was interrupted. Since we are going to be on this island for another nine days, and with all the competitions that are being held, we have a serious chance to make a lot of extra beli."

"What did you have in mind girlie?" Franky asked the navigator.

"For instance, there is a team trivia and knowledge competition being held at the Campari Casino today, and since they are probably the two smartest members of the crew, I think Robin and Chopper would be perfect to compete in it. There is also a hot dog eating competition in another casino." Nami explained.

"Don't think that just because you called me smart that I would be happy, asshole." Chopper said happily while doing his noodle dance.

Nami shook her head with an amused smile at the antics of the small reindeer before continuing. "Now the eating competition has a 2,000 beli entry fee, but the prize is 50,000 beli, so that won't be a big deal. Then tomorrow there is an ice sculpture build-off at the Drambuie Hotel and Casino that is paying out for the top 3 places, so Franky and Usopp should both compete to increase our chances of winning more."

"Ow! Leave it to me Nami-sis. I'll make sure that my sculpture is SUPER!"

"You should expect nothing but the best from the great Captain-Usopp!" Both men exclaimed while striking their signature poses.

"What about me Nami-swan?" Sanji eagerly asked. "Is there anything I can do to be productive?"

"Well as a matter of fact, yes." The orange-haired woman answered. "There is a cooking competition in three days that you can compete in. Until then you can help me with some of my shopping and restocking supplies."

"It would be my honor NAMI-SWAN!" The cook replied excitedly, going into his mellorine mode.

"Tch." Zoro sounded off from his laying position on the couch, never even bothering to open his eye.

"And what will I be doing Nami-san?" Brook questioned the navigator.

"Well. There is a music competition tomorrow evening…" Nami paused to think about her response. "But seeing how you are the world famous Soul King. It would be better if we could find a few places that would want to book you for some concerts. We could probably make four times the beli from ticket sales than we would from the prize beli."

"An excellent idea Nami-san." The skeleton said approving of the plan. "Plus it will give me a chance to debut my newest ballad, Mermaids Wear No Panties."

"What the hell kinda song is that, baka?" Nami shouted at the musician while delivering a stern fist to the top of his head.

"Nami-swan is so beautiful when she is angry." The cook swooned, getting another 'tch' from the swordsman. "Did you say something marimo?"

"Only that you continue to be pathetic dart-board-brow." Zoro responded, finally stirring from his laying position.

"I'm pathetic you say?" The blond man questioned. "And just what the hell will you be doing to pull your weight for the next few days, you muscle-headed bastard?"

"What? Did you already forget love-cook? I'm the one that won the last competition." The swordsman retorted while crossing the room to confront his rival. "Or maybe you're still dizzy from all that stupid spinning you did last night? Besides, Nami and I are going to be…" Bam!

Nami quickly stepped in between the two men and delivered a blow to each of their heads to stop the impending fight, as well as interrupt Zoro from finishing his statement. "Since there really aren't any competitions for Zoro and me to participate in…" The navigator spoke to give an explanation for what Zoro was unable to finish. "He and I will be taking all of the watch shifts to keep everyone well rested for their competitions. At least until night eight when there is a teamed drinking contest that he and I will be competing in."

Zoro looked up at Nami from his kneeling position holding his still aching head. He was slightly confused to why she was being secretive of their plans to practice for the dance contest. But instead of commenting on it, he decided to let it be; figuring that she probably had her reasons. Instead he chose to quietly return to the couch.

But it wasn't only Zoro that was curious to Nami's actions. Robin had found herself quite intrigued by the navigator's behavior. It was rare that the younger woman took on the night watches, let alone actually volunteered for them. This seemed like just the thing for the raven-haired woman to investigate.

"Ok. Now that that's all settled. Does anyone have any questions on what they are supposed to be doing?" Nami asked, feeling that there was nothing left to add.

"Ooh, ooh. I've got a question Nami." Luffy stated excitedly while waving his arm in the air to get the navigator's attention.

"What is it Luffy?" The mikan-head asked with an annoyed tone.

"Who gets to be in the eating contest?" The rubber-man asked excitedly, only to have the entire crew give him blank stares. "What? Do I have something on my face?"

-0-0-0-0-

And so the competitions began. Each of the Straw-hats played their roles perfectly. Robin and Chopper won the knowledge competition with an unheard of perfect score, it didn't hurt that Robin secretly placed a hidden eye so she could see the announcer's question cards and answers, but that proved unnecessary because the duo knew most of the answers without having to cheat.

Luffy had easily won the hotdog eating contest. He set a new island record with an astonishing 794 confirmed eaten hotdogs, beating the previous record of 91. He was so dominate that he finished his plate in less than a second, and then proceeded to eat from the plates of all his competition, only to demand more once all the plates were clear. The casino was so shocked by the performance that they tried to disqualify him, and refused to pay the prize, that is until a very irate Nami convinced them otherwise.

The second day went equally well for the pirates. They found another eating contest for Luffy to be in, while Usopp and Franky competed in the ice sculpture competition. Franky had made a full scale version of '_The Docking 6: Big Emperor_' the way it was supposed to be with Robin included. While Usopp made a small scale sculpture of '_The Great Captain Usopp and His 8000 Followers_'. Both sculptures were so well made, and with such great detail, that the judges deemed the competition a tie, and split the combined first and second place prizes between the two.

Brook was able to line up two performances for the time they would be on the island, and with the aid of Nami, they were able to negotiate a deal which gave them 75% of the ticket sales. The first performance was held in the evening of the third night and was a huge success. It had been sold out in less than an hour of being announced. The crowd really enjoyed the Soul King's new hit song '_Mermaids Wear No Panties_', especially several women who volunteered to throw their own undergarments onstage much to Brook's enjoyment.

Sanji had wowed all the judges during his cooking competition. He had used all the skills he learned during his two years of training to present them with dishes that not only were rich in flavor, but filled them with more energy than they had felt in years. When the female judge said she was in love with his dishes, he misunderstood, taking it as a confession of love for him. He had to be physically restrained by both Franky and Chopper to not cause too much of a spectacle. Despite his odd behavior the judges still gave him first prize, and crowned him the undisputed '_Chef King_' of the entire city.

Zoro had been ordered to watch the ship for the first four days, seeing as though Las Jaeger was such a large city and that he would get easily lost. And though he insisted he wouldn't get lost, he made little effort to argue and did as he was told. He really didn't mind being on the ship because he kept himself busy exercising, napping, and drinking.

Nami was in a particularly good mood considering all the beli they were making. She even found herself being more generous when handing out everyone's shares so they could explore the city when they weren't busy with other objectives.

With each successful night, they would end the evening with another celebration. And as the party would die down, and most of the crew would retire to their beds for the evening, Zoro and Nami would meet in the crows-nest each night to practice for their big competition.

-0-0-0-0-

It was the end of the fourth day of competitions and was nearing 3-oclock in the morning. The rest of the crew had retired for the evening a long time ago, leaving only Nami and Zoro still awake in the crows-nest. They had already been practicing for hours.

The first three nights of their practicing had been absorbed by the swordsman teaching the navigator classical dance. To his surprise Nami was a very fast learner. She had mastered the Waltz on the first night, and they worked on the Tango for the next two. It probably would have only taken Nami one night to master the Tango, but Zoro was finding it quite difficult to teach her such an intimate dance. At first he was very apprehensive about the physical contact that they had to share, but by the third night that apprehensiveness vanished and they were able to perform it flawlessly.

On this fourth night; it was Nami's turn to teach Zoro some of the more modern styles. Zoro found that all his apprehensiveness had returned. Her style was so much rawer than the classical forms he was used to; it was based on instinct rather than form. Her hips moved freely as she swayed to the music, and though the physical contact was similar to the Tango, the movements were much more suggestive than he felt comfortable with. Regardless of how he tried to clear his mind and concentrate on just the movements, he found his concentration breaking when her body would move across his in a way that he was not familiar with, which would always cause his face to flush red with embarrassment, making him physically freeze in the process.

"Damn it Zoro. What the hell is your problem tonight?" Nami asked her green haired nakama, as she turned off the tone dial to confront the man on his behavior.

"My problem is all that damn bumping and grinding." He answered the mikan-head while his face was still red.

"Quit being such a baby." She teased the man. "It's no worse than the Tango. And you were able to get through that ok."

"It's a lot worse." He insisted while placing his arms over his chest in a pout.

Having known the man since she first joined the crew, Nami knew that Zoro wasn't comfortable with this type of thing. Realizing it would be best to not push the issue, she decided to give the man an opportunity to compose himself. "We've been at this for hours, let's take a break." She suggested to the man while walking to the bench which surrounded the room. She took a seat on the bench and grabbed a couple of nearby bottles of water, offering one to her dance partner.

Zoro nodded in agreement and accepted the bottle of water. He sat on the bench with a couple of feet separating himself and Nami. He let one arm rest on the back of the bench, while taking a drink from the bottle with the other. After swallowing the liquid, he let out a contented sigh, he then proceeded to lower the bottle of water while tilting his head backwards, closing his eye in the process.

Nami sat and watched the man for a few moments, happy to see that he had calmed down. But while watching him, a thought popped into her head that had been plaguing her for a few days now. '_Why does Zoro know how to dance?_' The entire crew had been talking about it; they had all wondered why someone like him would be familiar with such a skill, but no one had asked him directly. She decided now would be as good of time as any.

"Hey Zoro…" She spoke up, grabbing the swordsman's attention. "…when did you learn to dance?"

Zoro simply looked back at her for several moments while contemplating whether or not to answer her. But seeing the genuine look of curiosity on her face he decided that it would do no harm to tell her.

"When I was ten years old training at the dojo in Shimotsuki Village, sensei Koshiro felt that I was lacking something in my swordsmanship. He told me that I was too straight forward and forceful, and that I lacked grace. He suggested that I take dancing lessons. I didn't want to at first, but I decided that if it would help me become the best swordsman in the world, than I had nothing to lose. So from the age of ten to seventeen, I took dance lessons twice a week before I set out on my journey to become the best."

"So you quit when you were seventeen?" Nami asked him slightly shocked at his confession. "That was four years ago. You don't seem rusty at all, and you're actually a pretty good teacher. Why's that?"

Zoro was slightly offended by the way she asked her question, yet at the same time he could see where she was coming from, so with a defeated sigh, he elaborated a little further.

"While I was training on Kuraigana Island with Mihawk, he felt that I lacked patience. While trying to figure out a way to teach it to me, he asked if I had any other hobbies besides training, sleeping, and drinking. I let it slip that I knew how to dance." Zoro paused for a moment to scratch the back of his head as a small blush had formed on his face. "He decided the best way to teach me patience would be by making me teach Perona how to dance."

Nami was even more shocked by this information. But her shock didn't outweigh her curiosity. "Well, what was that like?" She asked, wanting him to continue.

"At first it sucked." He stated with certainty. "She had no dancing talent at all, she was stubborn as all hell, she whined about everything, and she was just generally annoying. It took everything I had to not murder her…" Zoro paused for a moment as he thought about all the similarities that Perona and Nami shared, he even found himself wanting to smirk at the reaction he was sure to get if he had told the navigator how much the two were alike. But he decided it would be best to just keep to himself, after all, he didn't really feel like getting the crap beat out of him.

Removing himself from his thoughts, Zoro continued with his story. "…but after a while she started to show real progress. The lessons were twice a week, like what I did when I was younger, but Mihawk made us show him the results at the end of each month. It was kind of creepy." Zoro shuttered at the thought of Mihawk's piercing gaze analyzing his and the ghost-princesses' movements. "He even took pictures of us dancing together once. I think he did it just to piss me off."

As Nami listened to Zoro's story she couldn't help but get the mental image of a father-like Mihawk taking pictures of the dancing duo. All the while saying things like… "Them's my babies!" …and… "They grow up so fast!" …with comical tears flowing from his golden eyes. The mental image caused the mikan-head to go into a fit of hysterical laughter.

"Oi, what's so damn funny?" The first-mate questioned the navigator with an irritated look on his face.

"Nothing… it's just that it's hard to picture the infamous Shichibukai… acting that way. It's almost like he was… the two of you guy's father." She said through broken speech and laughter.

Zoro took in what the navigator had said, causing him to get a similar mental picture of what Nami had envisioned. The vision caused him to break out into his own hearty fit of laughter.

The two laughed for several moments, until finally being able to compose themselves. Nami had to physically wipe the tears from her eyes. She was enjoying their conversation. It wasn't often that the swordsman talked about himself. Most of the crew had been very vocal about where they had been during their two year separation. The only ones who remained silent about it were Sanji and Zoro. The only reason any of them knew where Zoro had been was because the cook had persistently questioned him on his relationship with the ghost-princess, and he eventually told them out of irritation. Nami didn't want the conversation to end, she felt like she was being let in on a big secret of the man's life, and she wanted to know more.

"Tell me more about your dancing lessons." She said as she scooted closer to the man, bringing both of her knees onto the bench so she could sit on her feet while facing him and giving him her full attention. "How many people were in the class? What was your instructor like? Was she beautiful and elegant?"

Zoro looked into Nami's eyes to see a look of genuine curiosity. He didn't realize until that moment that it was probably the longest conversation they had ever had without getting into an argument. He wasn't sure why, but he felt compelled to keep going. "Well, her name was Parom; according to her she was once very beautiful. Her and husband were a famous dancing duo in the East Blue, they traveled all around doing competitions. But by the time I met her she was a short, wrinkly, old lady with a bad temper. Her husband had died about fifteen years earlier, and since she no longer had a dance partner, she decided to start her own studio. She was extremely hard to deal with, and could be kind of a perv, which is probably why I was her only student."

-0-0-0-0-

In the East Blue, on the outskirts of Shimotsuki Village, inside of a small building with a sign that read Parom's Dance Studio over the door, a small elderly woman sat reading a paper when she had the sudden urge to sneeze. "Achoo! Well it seems someone is talking about me." Parom stated with her shrill, high pitched voice. "It must be some young suitor talking about me beauty again. But alas, my heart has only ever belonged to two men. My husband 'whatever his name was' and young master Roronoa Zoro. I hope to see you again one day Zoro. Hehehehe."

-0-0-0-0-

Back on the Thousand Sunny, Zoro felt a sudden cold run through his body. He went pale as a strange force, almost like the icy touch of death himself, seemed to grip his heart. And just for a moment, he could have sworn that he heard a familiar shrill, high pitched giggle in the back of his mind.

"Are you ok Zoro? You got pale all of a sudden." Nami asked as she noticed the confused/fearful look on the swordsman's face.

"It's nothing." He said calmly, while regaining his composure. "What were we talking about?"

"Your dance instructor Parom, what were her teaching methods like?"

"Her teaching methods? Well, she was kind of a perfectionist, and she expected me to learn quickly. Her teaching method was pretty straight forward. Get it right, or she would beat it into you." Zoro paused for a second while remembering the lessons. "If I was late, she would hit me. And the crazy woman was always moving her damn house, so I was always late. If I missed a step or screwed up, she would hit me. And if I ever stepped on one of her feet, she would beat the crap out of me. For the first year, I don't think I ever left after a lesson without some new bruise, or a black eye."

Nami sat quietly listening to his story; she couldn't help but notice the small smirk on his lips, and the fond look in his eye as he recalled his memories with his instructor. What she couldn't figure out though, was whether he was fond the woman, or the beatings the woman gave him. '_Sometimes I think that Zoro is such a masochist._' She pondered the prospect to herself. '_I bet he secretly gets off on all the pain he puts his body through._'

As Nami thought about the idea, a mental image popped into her head. It was of Zoro sitting on the floor with his feet under him in a dark room, and his hands tied behind his back securely with thick ropes. His bandana was made into a makeshift blindfold, covering his eyes. And his chest and back were bare, with light red welts starting to form across his tanned skin. There was a woman in the room with him, slowly walking circles around him. She was wearing a pair of black thigh-high zip up leather boots with a five inch heal. A black and red strapless lace-up leather corset covered her chest and stomach, while a pair of black with red lace panties covered her lower half. The woman was caring a red leather flogger which she used on the man's chest and back while occasionally asking him questions.

"Do you like when I punish you slave? Do you enjoy the pain?" The woman asked while Zoro remained silent on the floor. "Well, answer me slave." The woman demanded while she flogged him hard across the chest.

"Yes." He answered while wincing from the sting of the leather going across his scarred chest.

"Yes 'what' slave?" The woman asked while smacking the flogger lightly across his face.

"Yes I like the pain mistress."

"Then you can have as much as you like." The woman stated with a sadistic smile forming on her lips. "All you have to do is ask."

"Please punish me mistress." The marimo said through heavy breathing.

The woman placed her right foot onto his shoulder, while she dug the heal of her boot into his chest. She bent her knee so she could lean in closer to the man's face. "That's mistress Nami to you." The mikan-head declared as she licked her lips.

Zoro's heavy breathing, pained expression, and blindfold all disappeared from his face. While a confused expression appeared as he cocked his head to the side. "What the hell are you blabbering about?"

Nami was torn from her day-dream by the realization that she had uttered the last part aloud. Her face flushed red with embarrassment as she met the gaze of the man in front of her.

"Oi, are you alright?" Her nakama asked with a concerned look on his face. "Your face got red all of a sudden. Are you coming down with a fever?"

He stretched out his hand to see if her forehead was warm, only to have her slap it away before it could make contact. "I'm fine. It's nothing." She replied to the man while turning her head from his glaze. '_What the hell was that?_' Nami thought to herself while bringing her thumb to her mouth so she could chew on her thumb-nail. '_Did I just have a fantasy about Zoro? Where did that come from?_' She moved her hand away from her mouth and placed it on her forehead to check if it was indeed warm. '_Maybe I am coming down with a fever. That's got to be the only explanation_.'

Turning to Zoro, she saw that he still had a concerned look on his face. She knew she would have to come up with something or things would just end up getting more awkward. "Actually, now that you mention it, I am feeling a little warm." She said to him in a calm/reassuring voice. "I think it's because I'm just tired. I haven't slept much these past couple of days with us practicing and all. I think I'm going to call it a night and get some sleep. I should feel fine in the morning. You can handle the rest of the night watch alone right?"

Zoro confirmed by simply nodding his head. He continued to stare at the woman as he tried to figure out whether to believe her or not. He chose to stay silent as she stood from the bench and made her way to the exit.

Before leaving, Nami turned to face the man. "Good night Zoro. I'll see you tomorrow." She said in a quiet voice, giving him a small smile.

After making her way down from the mast, Nami entered the women's quarters and crawled into her bed. She lay awake for several moments trying to assess all the events of the last few days. After sometime she finally drifted to sleep with the images of her day-dream still fresh in her mind.

**End chapter 2**

Author Notes: Sorry for the late update. Even though it's a lame excuse, I've been having all kinds of computer problems lately. Hell, the only reason I was able to get this done was cause I had to leave work early one day cause I was sick as hell.(food poising is a real bitch)

The one thing I am enjoying is all the random research I'm doing for this story. I don't know crap about dancing or fashion, but I've found myself google-ing all kinds of different stuff. By the way: has anyone figured out where I'm getting the names for the island, and everything on it?

Well, as always: Feel free to critique me if you feel I'm doing something wrong. And THANK YOU FOR READING!


	3. Chapter 3

Big thankx to everybody who's been following this story so far. Your encouragement has been a huge inspiration for me to work faster on this. I had no idea that this was going to go over so well.

I still don't own One Piece.

**Dance the Night Away: Chapter 3**

It was the following morning, right before 11 o-clock, and day 5 of the competitions. Most of the men had left the Sunny shortly after breakfast to go watch Usopp compete in a target shooting contest, and to go exploring afterwards, leaving only Sanji, Zoro, Nami, and Robin still on the ship.

After realizing she had been overworking herself the previous night, Nami had decided to take the day off from the competitions. She was going to spend the day relaxing on the ship, with the possibility of a little shopping later. By this time the crew had become quite infamous in the city and few casinos were willing to pay out high odds against the crew; in fact all eating contests dramatically lowered the prize beli given out, and the odds for anyone beating Luffy were raised to 1,000,000,000 to 1. With these new stats in place the navigator saw no reason to place any bets on the competitions today, which only made her decision to stay on the ship that much easier.

Robin, who had felt some exhaustion because of the previous days' excitement, had also chosen a nice relaxing day on the Sunny as well. She had decided to engross herself into a newly purchased book on the lawn deck, while sunbathing next to Nami.

Forever being the gentlemen, Sanji remained on the ship to look after his beautiful female nakama, making sure he was available to provide them with anything they could ever need. He was currently in the kitchen making them a couple of fruit smoothies, preparing them with as much skill and love as his talented hands could. He was inwardly hoping that his creations would cause the two lovely ladies to confess their undying love for him, but honestly knew that he would melt into a puddle by a simple 'thank you'.

Near the entrance to the aquarium bar, on the opposite side of the lawn deck from the two women, the swordsman of the crew stood doing his early morning sword katas with an extremely large bar stacked to the top with weights. He had chosen to do them on deck this morning, feeling that the fresh air and the sun would benefit him, opposed to the confined space of the crows-nest which he had been spending much of his time in as of late. He had removed his arms from his jacket, letting the clothing lay over his sash, so the breeze could run across his bare back and chest.

The location of Zoro did not go unnoticed by the mikan-head sitting directly across from him. Nami had been secretly watching him underneath the dark lenses of her sunglasses, all the while pondering the meaning of the previous night's day-dream. She couldn't wrap her mind around what had caused her to have such a vivid thought about the first-mate, a man who she had thought to be just a close nakama. She was so lost in thought that she hadn't noticed the approach of her other male nakama.

"Here you are. A set of special treats for two special ladies." Sanji swooned as he handed the first drink to Robin.

"Thank you Sanji-san." Robin said politely, before taking a sip from the smoothie and placing it on the table in-between Nami and herself. "It is quite delicious."

"You're welcome Robin-chwan." The cook exclaimed happily, as a heart replaced his one visible eye. "And for you Nami-swan." He tried to present the second drink to the mikan-head, but got no response in return because she was too lost in thought to acknowledge him. "Nami-swan, is everything all right?"

Hearing his question, and finally realizing that the blond man was beside her, Nami was brought out of her thoughts. "I'm… I'm fine. Thank you Sanji-kun." She responded, taking the drink from his hands.

Sanji gave her a concerned look before questioning further. "Are you sure you're alright Nami-swan?"

"Yes, really I'm fine." She answered the man before taking a sip of her drink and smiling up at the man. "I'm just a little tired is all. Thank you for the drink."

"You are most welcome. If either of you ladies need anything at all, all you have to do is utter my name and I will be honored to get you anything you would like." The blond man gave them a polite bow, getting a smile from both of the women in the process, before making his leave.

As the cook made his way across the deck, he was stopped by the voice of his male nakama before he had reached the stairs. "Oi, curly-brow. Bring me some water." Zoro ordered the other man, while never stopping his katas.

"Get your own damn water, shitty-swordsman." Sanji retorted to his eternal rival before stomping up the stairs. Getting only a 'tch' from said swordsman in reply.

Nami quietly sipped on the cold beverage in her hand while watching the exchange from the two men. The more she thought about it, the harder it was for her to understand where her day dream had come from. The man in front of her seemed to do nothing but annoy her. His bad manners and constant foul mood were anything but pleasant. He was lazy, horrible with money, and had no directional sense what so ever. She couldn't imagine herself, or anyone happily putting up with the man.

Then she remembered the first night they had come to the island. The image of him on the dance floor, his confidence, how handsome he looked, and the way Robin was smiling while dancing with him. She couldn't help but think '_does Robin have feelings for Zoro? She seemed happy. Does she see something that I'm not?_' She placed her drink on the table and glanced at the older woman beside her. She had to know what was on Robin's mind the night of the first competition. "Hey Robin, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course Nami-san. What is it?" The archeologist responded while closing her book and placing it in her lap.

"When you and Zoro were dancing, you seemed really happy. Why?" Nami asked while looking at Robin's face to watch her expression.

"Did I? I'm surprised you noticed." The raven-haired woman responded with an amused smile.

"You don't have to answer if it's personal." Nami said slightly defeated, thinking that was Robin's way of blowing off the answer.

"I don't mind answering. I was just a little taken aback by the question. Let me see…" Robin paused for a moment while thinking of her answer. "Looking back on it I suppose I was happy."

She could see something in the other woman's facial expressions sink a little, Robin knew she would have to elaborate and give an honest answer. "I wasn't so much happy about being able to dance with kenshi-san, as I was getting to learn that he knew how to dance. This crew never ceases to amaze me. Just when you think you have learned all there is to know, someone surprises you with an untold story, or undiscovered skill. This city has proved that in more ways than one this week."

Robin gauged Nami's expression to see if it had the desired effect, but when the younger woman's expression didn't change, she decided to voice her thoughts instead. "Was that the answer you were looking for, Nami-san?"

"Yes, thank you Robin." Nami answered quietly, Robin simply nodded her head and returned to her book. But the truth was Nami still didn't get the information she was looking for, Robin hadn't answered whether she had feelings for Zoro or not.

Not knowing how to come right out and ask that question, Nami decided to go back to looking at Zoro to see if she could figure out the answers for herself. While observing the man she couldn't help but think about some of his better qualities this time around. She knew that he was loyal to the highest sense of the word, maybe even more so than any of the rest of the crew. He upheld his honor to a very high degree. And his devotion to the entire crew might have been second only to the devotion he had for his dream. Just when she was starting to think she was finding some of the answers, she was momentarily taken from her thoughts by the sound and the image of a… SPLASH.

Zoro froze in place for a second as he was suddenly drenched by a falling rush of cold water. "Oi, shitty marimo! I changed my mind! There's your damn water!" Stated Sanji while leaning over the balcony holding a now empty bucket, a smug grin clearly visible for all to see across his face.

"Thanks shit-cook. I needed that." Zoro said simply while shaking the excess water from his body and returning to his katas.

Not getting the desired results, the cook turned around and stomped towards the kitchen yelling out… "Next time it's going to be boiling water you dumb bastard!" …before slamming the kitchen door shut in the process.

Staring at the now drenched Zoro; Nami couldn't help but admire his glistening form in the sun. The way that each droplet of water accented his every muscle and scar as he continued his routine. She bit bottom lip as her eyes looked over him from head to toe. She had finally found her answer to where her day-dream had come from, and that answer stirred another thought inside her… '_One more couldn't hurt._'

Nami's thoughts –

_We would be in a crowded ballroom. I would be sitting at a table just off the dance floor in an elegant dress enjoying a glass of wine. Then I would see him standing on the dance floor wearing a pair of black pants, his red sash tied around his waist, and he would be wearing a white ruffled shirt with an open collar, on second thought… lose the shirt._

_The hosts would announce that they would start the music soon and everyone should find a dance partner. Our eyes would meet. He would make his way across the dance floor, bypassing many women trying to get his attention. One woman would even try blocking his path, only for him to brush past her._

_He would walk straight towards me, for once not getting lost in the process, while never removing his gaze from mine. Finally he would stand in front of me, and extending his left hand to me, he would ask me in a suave tone… "May I have this dance?"_

_I could hear all the women in the area who were watching him make jealous and snide comments about… 'Why did he pick her?' and… 'What does she got that I don't?' but I wouldn't respond to them. Instead I would give him a sly grin and tell him… "Only if you say please."_

_And he would respond to me… "Did you say something navigator-san?" in Robin's voice. Wait, in Robin's voice?_

-End Nami's thoughts.

A sudden fear took over Nami, she realized she must have been talking out loud again as she turned her head to meet the inquisitive gaze of Robin. "What... what was that Robin?" She asked the older woman, trying to confirm if she had been caught in her day-dream.

"I believe you said… Only if you say please." Robin responded. "Were you talking to me?"

"Well… No I… That is…" Nami was at a total loss for words. She didn't know how she could even start to explain that she was having a day-dream about Zoro, or how to come up with a convincing story to tell the other woman that she wasn't.

A look of concern came over Robin's face as she watched the younger woman stammer her words. "Is everything alright Nami?" She asked as she closed her book, placing it in her lap to give Nami her full attention. "Are you feeling well? You look a little tired."

"I'm fine, really." The mikan-head stated, waving her hand at the other woman to try and reassure her that everything was alright.

"Is that so?" Robin responded while giving Nami a polite smile. "And here I thought it might have something to do with the late hours you've been keeping."

"Well, I've been scheduled for watch all week." Nami said, slightly confused because she didn't know what Robin was implying. "Remember, I made it that way so everyone would stay well rested for the competitions."

"Yes, I remember. You scheduled yourself for all the first watches until the last two nights that we're here." Robin tilted her head slightly and her polite smile transformed into an all knowing smile. "But you haven't been coming back to your bed until well after the second watch begins. Has something been keeping you up late?"

Nami wasn't stupid. She knew full well that there wasn't much that happened on the ship that Robin didn't already know about, but she also knew that if she didn't want to talk about it, Robin wouldn't press the issue, so she decided to pretend to keep up the façade. "I've just been losing track of time while working on my maps."

Robin responded to the woman's explanation with a smile and a simple shrug of the shoulders and then returned to her book. Nami let out a small sigh of relief from the awkward conversation being over. But as she lay back in her chair, her previous questions of whether Robin had feelings for the swordsman resurfaced in her brain. She needed to know. Because the last thing Nami wanted was to betray the feelings of her friend, but how would she go about asking Robin.

She sat in her chair for several minutes thinking about the best way to ask. Finally an idea popped into her head; she would ask Robin in a way that wasn't direct, but would hopefully still have the desired results.

"Hey Robin…" Nami began, grabbing her friend's attention. "Can I ask you a rhetorical question?"

"As long as I can choose whether to answer it or not, of course you may." Robin responded without ever removing her eyes from her book.

"If you were to have a relationship, other than just being nakama, with another member of the crew, who would it be?" Nami asked with uncertainty of whether Robin would play along.

As Robin let the words sink in, a small smile formed on her lips. The concept definitely intrigued her. "Now that is an interesting question. But I guess my answer would depend on the circumstances." Robin once again lowered her book, placing it her lap as she turned towards Nami. "Is this relationship physical, emotional, or intellectual?"

Nami hadn't thought that there could be multiple possibilities based on the situation of the relationship. Not wanting to sound like she was giving it much thought, she decided to go with… "I guess physical."

"Well if it was a physical relationship, I would have to say kenshi-san."

"Zo-Zoro? Why Zoro?" Though Nami knew that the swordsman was a possible answer, she had inwardly hoped that Robin would say another name.

"For a couple of reasons really. For one: As I'm sure you've noticed, he is quite attractive. For second: I'm sure he would have incredible stamina…" Robin made a slight movement of her head to point Nami's attention towards where Zoro was still diligently exercising. "And finally: If it were to be a purely physical relationship, I would prefer to keep it a discreet one, and he is the best possible candidate for that."

"Why's that?" Nami found herself asking Robin before realizing that her lips were even moving.

"Well there are obvious complications with having a physical relationship with skeleton-san and doctor-san. I'm not sure if senchou-san would grasp the concept, and if he did, I believe he would want everyone to partake in the action. I'm not sure if either cyborg-san or long nose-san would be able to keep it a secret. And then there's cook-san…"

"Who would take it as a confession of love." Nami said finishing Robin's statement for her. "Leaving Zoro as the obvious choice." As Nami let the words of the older women sink in, she was overcome with a sinking feeling forming in her chest; she was feeling jealous of Robin.

She knew she was being foolish for feeling this way, but her recent discovery that she might actually be developing feelings for the swordsman was making her mind race with confusing thoughts. '_I don't think that I would actually pursue a relationship with Zoro, we're nakama after all, but I at least wanted the option to be open if I did want to._' Nami thought to herself, while biting on her thumb. '_But how could I now that I know Robin is interested as well, she's beautiful, and so mature. All Zoro and I ever do is fight, he probably can't even stand to be around for more than ten minutes at a time. Damn it! Why am I feeling this way? Why am I being so damn stupid?_' Nami took her hand away from her mouth and brought it down onto the arm of the chair she was sitting in, causing a thump as her fist collided with it.

As Nami sat there, clenching her fist tightly trying to get a hold of her emotions, she was surprised to feel a soft slender hand lightly wrap around her fist in a gentle manner. With her eyes, she followed the hand back to its owner to find Robin slightly leaning over the table between them. Robin's eyes were filled with compassion as she gave Nami a concerned look.

"Nami…" Robin said, using no honorifics to show she was being sincere. "That question you asked me, it was only rhetorical, wasn't it?

Nami met Robin's gaze and gave a small, sad smile before answering. "Of course it was Robin. Why?"

Robin let go of the younger woman's hand and sat back in her chair, but she kept her eye contact with Nami. "Because if the question was sincere; then that option would be completely off the table for me."

Nami gave Robin a confused look. "Why would it be off the table?" She asked the older woman with a hopeful look in her eyes.

"Well, there are two reasons really. First of all: This crew of ours is very close to one another, because of that closeness a purely physical relationship would be nearly impossible to maintain for very long. Eventually one of the two parties would want something more, and to be honest, I'm not sure if an emotional relationship would work between kenshi-san and I. As I am sure you are well aware, both kenshi-san and I are not very open with our emotions, we are too similar in that aspect; there would not be enough balance." Robin paused for a moment to watch the uneasiness and sadness start to lift from Nami's face, seeing that the younger woman was feeling better about their conversation, she decided to continue. "And the other reason: Is that ever since I joined this crew, I had noticed that kenshi-san was already spoken for."

Nami's face was once again covered in confusion as she quickly tried to figure out who Robin had been talking about. '_Zoro is already spoken for, by whom_?' She thought to herself as she pictured some of the women they had met already who could have captured Zoro's affection. '_Well, there's Vivi. She did have that little pet nickname for him, but I couldn't see Zoro being romantically involved with her, she was just too innocent. Then there is that ghost girl he spent two years with, but Robin said ever since she joined the crew, and we didn't meet her until Thriller Bark. Who else is there?_'

As Nami concentrated, an image of a girl with dark blue hair and glasses came into her head. She remembered how every time Zoro would see her, the woman would try and challenge him, but Zoro would always refuse and run away. She also remembered that the woman seemed to be just as obsessed with swords as Zoro was, the girl had to be who Robin was talking about. "The marine girl." Nami said aloud while letting out a defeated sigh.

Robin let out an amused chuckle at Nami's conclusion. "No Nami-san. Not the marine girl." Robin said to clarify. "I am talking about you."

"M…me?" Nami exclaimed as she nearly jumped out of the chair from shock. "I d…don't have any fe…feelings for Zoro."

"Oh, did I read too much into it?" Robin's smile increased as she watched the antics of the younger woman. "Maybe I should put more thought into the possibility of a physical relationship with kenshi-san then."

"I'm not saying that I have feelings for Zoro, because I don't…" Nami denied as a small blush started to form on her face. "But what makes you say that I have already spoken for him?"

"You mean besides the fact that you have been staring at him all day?" Robin couldn't contain the very amused smile that formed on her face as Nami's blush deepened to an almost crimson red. "There is also that ridiculous debt that you insist he owes you, when we all know full well that he has paid you back tenfold."

"But he does owe me. It's not my fault he never learned the conditions of the loan." Nami justified, while crossing her arms over her chest in a pout.

"True. But why do you hold him to such a higher standard than the rest of the crew?"

"What do you mean? He's the only one who owes me money."

"Not according to long nose-san." Robin said while receiving a blank stare from Nami. "According to him; senchou-san, doctor-san, cook-san, and long nose-san himself all owe you 10,000 beli apiece from receiving something called a Happiness Punch." Nami's mouth dropped open wide as she recalled the incident in the bath house at the palace in Alabasta, she had no idea that Usopp had told Robin about that.

"At first I thought he was just telling another one of his tall-tales…" Robin continued. "But when I asked the other three men about it, there responses all confirmed he was actually telling the truth." Robin paused for a moment to gauge the expressions on Nami's face before continuing. "Doctor-san ran away embarrassed, cook-san got a nose-bleed, and senchou-san said that it was quite funny. But the thing I found most amusing was that long nose-san had told me that you had never once brought up the money to any of them."

Nami was absolutely shocked at the information she had just been told. As she thought back, she realized that what Robin was saying was completely correct. Even though she had told them all that she was charging for her little show, she never once had made any of them pay. That wasn't like her at all.

"So I ask you again Nami-san." Robin said to the younger woman. "Why is it that you hold kenshi-san to such a higher standard? Is it really about the money? Or is it you want to make sure he has some kind of connection with you? Something he has to stick around for even after he accomplishes his dream."

As Nami tried to process what the older woman had just said to her, she began to wonder if there was a different meaning behind the debt she had placed on Zoro. She started to wonder whether the feelings she was having for the swordsman was something recent, or whether she had had them all along and was now just realizing them.

While her mind was racing, Nami noticed that Robin was still watching her intently. "I… that is… you see…" Nami tried desperately to come up with an answer for Robin, but found that she was drawing a complete blank instead.

"Don't worry Nami-san. You don't have to give me an answer to the questions I asked." The archeologist said in a reassuring tone. "The questions were more for you to answer for yourself anyway."

And Nami knew that Robin was right. She would have to look for answers of those questions. But right now, she didn't want to think about it. She needed something to take her mind off that subject, something to lighten the serious mood that she had found herself in. And then she remembered something from the beginning of their conversation.

"Hey Robin, earlier you said your answer would be based on the circumstances."

Robin knew that Nami was just trying to get the attention off of her, but she didn't mind. "That's right."

Seeing that Robin was still on board with the original idea, Nami decided to ask her the question. "Who would you have an emotional relationship with?"

"Probably Franky-san." The older woman responded with a polite smile.

"Franky? Why Franky?" Nami asked surprised at Robin's answer. She didn't see it. Robin was so mature and serious, while Franky was… Franky.

"I find the way he wears his emotions on his sleeve quite refreshing. It would be a nice balance to my reserved nature. Besides that, he makes me laugh."

Nami watched in awe at the genuine smile forming on her friend's face while she talked about the cyborg. The mikan-head sat back in her chair as images of the two started to form in her mind. She pictured the two of them holding hands on the beach, sharing food with each other, and intimate moments in the bedroom; some of the images were disturbing to her.

"Nami-san…" Robin said bringing Nami out of her thoughts. "Wouldn't you like to know who I would choose for an intellectual relationship?"

Nami was honestly a little scared to ask, but being part cat (cat burglar that is) curiosity got the better of her. "Who would that be?"

"Why that would be you Nami-san." The older woman stated to her younger friend with a suggestive wink before returning to her book.

"R-Robin." Nami said blushing from Robin's obvious teasing. "You're horrible."

**End Chapter 3**

Author Notes: This chapter was going to be much longer than it is, but some things came up, and I'm not sure when I'll have time to write next. So I decided to go ahead and post this so I don't have to leave ya all hanging for too long.

I will make sure to find time to read all of you guy's stories that I normally follow, so it's not like I'm going to disappear, I'll still be around. I'm hoping to take care of what needs done pretty quickly, so with a little bit of luck you might hear from me within about a month or two, hopefully sooner.

Until next time -fmdevil-


	4. Chapter 4

This was supposed to be the second part of part of chapter 3, so this will take place on the same day as chapter 3.

For the record, I still don't own One Piece.

**Dance the Night Away Chapter 4:**

He couldn't believe it. Regardless of how much he tried to wrap his head around it, he just couldn't. '_How the hell did this happen?_' is what Zoro found himself thinking over and over again in his head.

-Flashback-

He had just finished his morning workout on deck, and decided he was going to take a nap under the shade of the tree, when all the idiots had returned from their competition expecting lunch. But instead of all gathering in the kitchen, they remained on deck to tell Robin and Nami the results of their most recent victory. This really wouldn't have been much of problem, but they were being unnaturally rowdy even for their standards, which was making it impossible for the swordsman to fall asleep.

Soon after: Lunch was called, and after the crew had consumed it, Zoro once again tried to get in another nap. He had hoped that all his crewmates would have calmed down after they had some food in their system, but it only seemed to make them even more hyperactive. Realizing that he wasn't going to get any sleep, Zoro decided that he would go into the city to find a nice place to have a quiet drink instead.

He had felt that his decision would be a great idea for two different reasons; the first one being that he had spent most of the time while on the island of Shaka on the ship, so a little time in the city would be a nice change of scenery. And the other reason was he wanted to put a little space between him and the resident navigator, who he had been spending a lot of time with recently.

It's not as if he wasn't enjoying the time he had been spending with her, in fact he was enjoying it quite a lot. The Problem was he was starting to fear that he was enjoying it too much.

All the time spent with her had been causing him to have several weird dreams about the mikan-head. She had invaded his dreams in the past, but normally they would be about her hounding and blackmailing him over the debt she insisted he owed her. But these recent dreams were taking on a more romantic twist. Some involved the two of them dancing together in very private and intimate settings, while others involved her being uncharacteristically sweet to him. It was getting to the point where every time he closed his eyes, the image of Nami's lovely face would be the first thing to appear in his mind.

But it was last night's dream that was the most vivid: It involved him handing her an envelope full of beli, much like the one he handed her on the first night, but this envelope would have enough in it to completely pay off his debt. She was so grateful that she embraced him in a warm embrace, wrapping her arms around his neck to bring her face closer to his, and then she would give him the most passionate kiss he had ever received it his life. '_Yeah right, like that would ever happen._'

These thoughts were not natural for Zoro, nor did he have time for them. He was on a path to become the world's greatest swordsman, he couldn't afford to be acting like a love struck teenager. That's why he had to get off the ship and put some distance between himself and the beautiful woman for even just a little while, and he knew a good drink was just the thing to help him clear his mind.

But once off the ship and into the large city, he had found that his mission to get drunk was easier said than done. The city seemed to be on a huge revolving track system(or something like that), and the directions the locals were giving him made absolutely no sense, he couldn't help but wonder if everyone in the city was directionally retarded or whether they were just screwing with him or not. And when he finally was certain he was in the right area, he ended up running into the very person he had been trying to avoid.

As he rounded a street corner, he had nearly collided head first with Nami. Said navigator had been wandering the area along with Robin, they had been on quite a shopping spree, and were loaded for bear with bags under each arm.

"Oi, what's the big idea baka? Can't you see I'm walking…" Nami started screaming before realizing who was in front of her. "Oh, Zoro, what are you doing here?"

"Tch, looking for a quiet bar to have a drink at." The marimo stated in a rather annoyed tone.

"But this is the shopping district. All the bars are located in the entertainment district." The mikan-head said while giving him a skeptical look. "You're lost, aren't you?"

"I am not lost. This damn city is just set up weird." Zoro defended.

The two women let out an amused chuckle at the man's antics. "Either way, your timing is perfect. These bags were getting too heavy, and Robin and I still had more shopping we wanted to do, so you're coming with us to help carry our bags." Nami ordered more than asked.

"Like hell I am!" Zoro spat at the woman. "What makes you think I want to carry your damn bags, or go shopping with you two?"

"Because you're going to do it out of gratitude. After all; with your sense of direction, you would probably end up getting lost and wandering around it the huge forest that surrounds the city. Consider it payment for having to babysit you." The navigator said as she shoved her bags into his unwilling arms. "Now come on, don't lag too far behind." Nami then proceeded to walk down the street towards another shop she wanted to go to.

Zoro stood in place dumbfounded for a moment trying to figure out what had just happened until his concentration was broken by Robin holding out her own bags for him to take. "Thank you so much for your assistance kenshi-san." She told him politely as he took hold of her bags as well. "We should probably get going before Nami-san gets too far ahead."

With a defeated sigh, Zoro nodded his head and followed into tow behind the two women. He just couldn't understand how he had been roped into becoming the mikan-head's personal pack-mule for the day, again. All he wanted to do was get a drink, instead he would have to follow Nami around and try not to admire her fine figure from behind. This was just going to be one of those days.

-End Flashback-

The three straw-hats had now been shopping for four hours, but it felt closer to forty hours for the swordsman. It was like the two women were trying on every piece of clothing in the damn city. The thing that started to piss Zoro off the most was the fact that no matter how many articles of clothing they tried on in each shop, they would only end up buying one or two items. '_Why would they even bother trying it on if they weren't going to buy it in the first place?_' Was a thought that crossed his mind several times that day.

If looks could kill, Zoro would have murdered both women well over a hundred times that day, as he had tried on several occasions to bore a hole in the back of their heads with a death glare. Nami was being overly annoying to the marimo by persistently telling him to hurry up despite him having to walk with the enormous amount of bags the two women had acquired, or by constantly scolding him for trying to wander off if they weren't keeping a close eye on him.

It was with a great sigh of relief when he heard the mikan-head say that she was done for the day, and they could return to the ship. But that relief was short lived as they crossed by a store front with blacked out windows, and only two readable signs that read; 'Leather Metal and More' which was the name of the store, and 'Stop in and ask how to receive up to 50% off all purchases' which was an advertisement that was covering one of the blacked out windows.

"Heh Robin, did we go in here yet?" Nami asked the older woman after the '50% off' sign caught her eye.

"I don't believe we have Nami-san." Robin answered politely.

"Leather Metal and More, huh? Do you suppose they sell belts and purses?" Nami spoke out loud to no one in particular. "I could use a new belt or two, let's check it out." She said as she started for the store's entrance before she was stopped by a familiar voice from behind her.

"Oi witch, I thought you said we were done for the day?" Zoro asked in an irritated tone.

Turning around and giving Zoro a sickly-sweet smile, she answered the man by saying "Oh, come on Zoro. One more store isn't going to kill you. Besides, the sign says 50% off. Let's go." She then resumed her walk towards the store.

"I'm sure it won't be that bad kenshi-san." Robin said while giving Zoro a reassuring pat on the shoulder before following suite behind Nami.

With his head hung low, Zoro unwillingly followed the two women inside the store. But he found himself having to stop short to not run into his two crewmates, who seemed to be frozen in place just inside the threshold of the building. "Oi, what's the big idea?" Zoro asked the two women, but got no response from either. He stuck his head between both of theirs to look at the expressions on their faces, and was quite surprised to see that both of them were wide eyed and had their mouths gaped open. "What the hell has gotten into the both of…" His question was cut short as a similar expression fell on his face as he looked around the store to see what had caught them by surprise.

He found the store was indeed full of leather, metal, and more. There were leather corsets and bustiers of all different colors. All kinds of clothing which consisted of only straps and metal rings. Leather hoods and all kinds of different restraints. Whips. Chains. Swings. Harnesses. But the most disturbing of all; there was a large poster of a woman with long-unkempt orange hair which covered her eyes, wearing a hot-pink skimpy outfit which seemed to have a devil theme to it, she was holding a large whip in her hand while striking a provocative pose and liking her lips, at the bottom of the poster was a lipstick mark and a signature which read 'Sadi-chan.'

"I'm not sure if this place sells the type of belts you are looking for Nami-san." Robin said to the younger woman, trying to break the awkward silence.

As the straw-hats still stood just inside of the threshold, a young woman with light brown hair popped her head out from around the corner of an aisle to see who had entered the store. "Ah, customers." The apparent sales clerk said excitedly with a smile on her face. She then rounded the corner and approached the three pirates revealing that she was wearing a very skimpy black leather lace up teddy which had chains at the bottom leading down to the equally skimpy thong panty that she was wearing. "Welcome to Leather Metal and More. My name is Candy. How may I help you today?" She asked giving a polite bow.

Both Zoro and Robin stared blankly at the young woman. Robin was taken slightly aback, while Zoro was in almost pure shock from the woman's bold choice of uniform. "You can't." Zoro stated flatly, finally breaking the odd silence. "We're leaving."

"But you just got here." The sales clerk said with a disappointed look on her face. "Don't you want to at least look around first? We are offering a really great deal right now, if you're interested."

"I'm sorry Candy-san." Robin said in an apologetic tone. "This just isn't the type of place I think we would be interested in shopping at. Right Nami-san?" Nami didn't respond, instead she seemed to be distracted by something. "Nami-san?" Robin repeated her nakama's name, but still couldn't get her attention.

"Oi, witch, are you listening?" Zoro spoke up trying to provoke a response from the navigator, but to still no avail.

Nami hadn't been paying attention to anything going on around her; instead she was almost completely hypnotized by a pair black thigh-high leather zip up boots with a five inch heal. She found herself walking towards them and picking them up without ever even realizing what she was doing. She was too busy feeling the texture of the material to even notice the sales clerk standing right next to her.

"Did you find something you like miss?" Candy asked Nami.

"Huh?" Was the only thing Nami responded, finally coming out of her trance to notice Candy standing next to her.

"It shows that you have very good taste. Maybe you would like to know about our 50% off deal."

"What do I need to know about it?" Nami never could pass up a good deal.

"Well, right now we are offering customers a chance to buy anything in the store for half the normal price, no limit on how much you can buy. That is of course, if you're willing to volunteer and model for our monthly product catalog."

Robin walked over to where Nami and Candy were standing. "Maybe we should do it Nami-san? It might be fun." Robin gave the mikan-head a wink and gave a slight nod of her head to direct Nami's attention towards Zoro who had been still standing quietly in the threshold.

Nami took notice to Zoro's widened eye, as she could almost hear the gears in his head moving. She thought that if anything else, it might be a good way to get a rise out of the marimo. "You know what, why not?" Nami said confidently as a mischievous smile formed on her face.

The sales woman clapped excitedly at Nami's decision. "That's great! You ladies pick out a few things while I go and get the camera and set up the photo area." Candy then disappeared somewhere in the store to start setting up, as the two women started to browse the store.

Zoro stood quietly, nearly in shock at what he had just witness transpire. "Oi, are you two serious?" He questioned his two female nakama, finally breaking his silence.

"Of course." Nami stated poking her head over a clothing rack while she and Robin went around the store picking out clothing items. "It's 50% off, how could we pass that up?" They could both hear the archeologist give a slight chuckle before Nami continued. "I see some chairs over by the dressing rooms. Just go sit down and be patient."

Zoro let out a small grumble as he started walking towards the chairs Nami was talking about. He put all the bags that he was carrying down before flopping down into the cushioned chair. He watched quietly as both Nami and Robin disappeared into separate dressing rooms with several items in their hands. Letting out a large yawn, he then crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eye to try and let sleep take over so that this event would go faster.

But it was only a couple of minutes later when he heard the sound of heels against the hardwood floor walking out of the dressing room towards him. He hadn't bothered even opening his eye to see who it was until he felt the sudden shift of the chair's cushion move right between his legs. He snapped his eye open to stare at Nami who was now standing in front of him wearing a black and red strapless lace-up leather corset, and a pair of black with red lace panties. In between his legs was one of the unzipped boots that she had grabbed when they first walked into the store.

Zoro remained frozen in place as he stared at the mikan-head before him; he hadn't even noticed that he had been forgetting to breathe until he instinctively took a large gulp. He had hoped that Nami, who was staring back at him, hadn't notice his unintentional reaction, but the slight smirk on her face confirmed that she had.

"Here, zip me up." She requested referring to the unzipped boot that was resting between his legs. "It's hard to move in this outfit."

Averting his eye from her own to look at her almost completely exposed leg, a small red tint befell his face before he responded. "Hell no. Why don't you ask Robin?"

"Because she's busy changing into her own outfit. Now why don't you quit being a big baby and just give me a hand?" She said in a suggestive tone.

"Fine. Damn witch." Zoro grumbled as he firmly grasped the calf of her left leg with his left hand to hold the material in place as he slowly moved the zipper up the boot with his right hand.

Once he had finished Nami removed her leg from the chair and started to bring up her right leg to replace it. But before she realized it; her body started to move on its own, and instead of putting her foot on the cushion where the left one had been sitting, she moved it all the way up to Zoro's left shoulder, slightly digging the heal into his chest just below his collar bone. With a slight curl of her lips, she ordered the swordsman "And now this one." -click- -click- -click-

Zoro took a moment to first look at her foot which was now firmly pressed against the fabric of his coat, before turning his attention to her face. He looked at her for a moment slightly confused at the expression on her face. He couldn't read it; he couldn't tell if she was being serious, or if she was just screwing with him. '_What the hell does this witch think she's doing? Is she challenging me?_' His eye narrowed and his face took on a serious expression. '_Who the hell does she think she is? Like hell I'd back down from a challenge, even if it's something like this._'

Without ever averting his eye from her own, Zoro took hold of the zipper with his left hand and her ankle in his right. -click- -click- -click- He slowly started working the zipper closed up her leg, while keeping his right hand parallel with his left. -click- -click- -click- He was slightly taken aback by how smooth the material felt sliding across the palm of his hand. -click- -click- -click- As he got to her knee his reach was almost completely extended, and he was having problems continuing; but to his surprise, Nami had bent in her knee to close some of the distance so he could continue. When he finally reached the top of the boot, his right index finger slid off the material, slightly grazing Nami's exposed skin. -click- -click- -click- After feeling her slightly twitch at the sudden contact, he tried to read her expression again to see if she wanted to stop this little game of hers. But what he saw instead was the mikan-head biting down on her lower lip, and her eyes seemed to be screaming for him to keep going. A mischievous smirk formed on his face as he was only happy to comply. He then let both of his hands slide off of the boot and onto her soft skin. '_I've already come this far. I'll take this as far as you're willing to witch._' -click- -click- -click- '_But what in the hell is that damn clicking noise?_'

Zoro turned his head towards the destination of the noise. What he saw caused him to completely freeze in horror and shock. Sensing something wrong in Zoro's change of behavior, Nami also turned her head towards where the swordsman was looking, only to have a similar reaction.

"Make him lick the boot." Candy said while eagerly clicking away at the shutter button of the camera, while a small trail of blood escaped her nose. Robin quietly stood behind the sales clerk, covering her mouth with the back of her hand to hide the very amused smile that was on her face.

Realizing the awkward situation they were in; Zoro quickly removed his hands from the navigator's leg, crossing his arms back over his chest, while Nami quickly placed her foot to the floor. "Thank you Zoro." "Yeah. No problem." They said to each other, desperately trying to hide their embarrassment from forgetting they weren't the only ones in the store. "Are you guys ready to take these pictures so Robin and I can get our discount?" Nami asked addressing the other two women while walking towards the backdrop Candy had set up.

"That's it? But it was just starting to get good." Candy said with a pout. "Ok. If you two are ready, we can start anytime."

"Candy-san…" Robin said to get the clerk's attention. "…Is there any chance I can get a copy of those photos?"

"No problem…" She responded to the archeologist. "…I'll have some sent to your ship along with the new catalog in a couple of days."

Seconds later Nami and Robin were standing side by side in front of the back drop. Robin had picked out a white leather halter top with buckles fastening the front, with a pair of matching leather shorts with the buckles on the sides, and a set of knee high buckled leather boots to complete the look. The two struck modest poses at first as Candy started taking pictures of them, but the sales clerk wasn't pleased with the simple pictures and quickly tried encouraging the two women to be more provocative.

"Come on, what's with the shy girls routine?" Candy asked. "You're supposed to be dominatrix's. I want to see attitude. I want you to be mean. I can tell you both know how to be mean. Let's see it." Her encouragement worked as the two women took on whole new personas.

Zoro, who had been trying not to watch, found himself completely entranced by the sight in front of him, particularly the sight of Nami. The mikan-head was radiating pure confidence as she struck pose after pose. At some point Candy had handed the two women some props to pose with; Robin had been given a black riding crop with a white leather tip, while Nami had been given a full length leather whip.

Nami stretched the whip out with both hands before snapping it on the ground. The sound of the snap caused Zoro to jolt to attention. His sudden movement didn't go unnoticed by Nami; she moved her gaze to make eye contact with him, and with a seductive smile forming on her lips she snapped the whip again. With each snap from the whip Zoro found it harder and harder to avert his eyes from the woman, and after about the fourth snap, he quit trying all together. He watched in awe as she dominated his attention from across the room.

The two stayed locked in each other's piercing gaze for several moments before being brought back to reality by an intruding voice. "Should we bring your boy toy over for some of the pictures?" Candy asked Nami.

With a confused look on her face Nami turned her attention on to the sales clerk. "Boy toy? Who Zoro?"

Candy gave a slight nod before continuing. "Maybe we could put him in a gimp mask? Or maybe something simple like a collar and leash?"

Nami could hear Robin holding in a small laugh behind her, causing the navigator to get a mental picture of the swordsman on all fours acting like an obedient dog. Through broken laughter, Nami couldn't help from teasing the marimo by inviting him to take part in the pictures. "Yeah Zoro…, why don't you… put on a collar and get in some of the pictures?"

Zoro's face flushed red with a mix of embarrassment and anger before he angrily responded, "Like Hell!"

-0-0-0-0-

After the photos had stopped, and the two female straw-hats had changed back into their normal clothes, they made several purchases and finished their business inside the store. The three finally made it back to the ship right before dinner time, and when the crew had asked what they had done for the last several hours; the only response they got was vague answers from Robin and Nami, and stern death glares from Zoro, resulting in the end of the conversation.

The rest of the night moved by in a fairly regular manner; being that it had been quite the hectic day for everyone on the ship, most of the crew had called it an early night and retired to their respected sleeping quarters. The only ones who remained awake were Zoro, who was currently in the crows-nest awaiting his dance partner, and said dance partner who was just arriving with a little surprise for Zoro.

"Hey Zoro, you know how you've been having problems learning the dance style I've been trying to teach you?" She asked the swordsman while keeping her hands behind her back.

"I'm not having problems learning it." He quickly shot back at the navigator to defend himself. "It's the doing part that is the problem."

"Well I might have a way to fix that. Do you remember how you told me about the way your old instructor used to teach you?" Nami asked, while a wicked smile appeared over her face.

"Yeah..." He responded with a look of both skepticism and concern. "…What about it?"

"I was thinking I could teach you in a similar method." Nami removed one hand from behind her back to let it sit at her side, as she did a long thin red object fell to the ground.

From where Zoro was sitting; he momentarily could have sworn that she had grown a devil's tail, but as he looked at the object closer, he recognized it from earlier in the day. It was the whip that she had been holding inside the store during the photo shoot; he hadn't noticed what she had actually bought at the store earlier, but now seeing it in her hand he wished he had been paying better attention.

"Every time you miss a step or mess up, I'll just snap you with this." She then revealed the whip from behind her back completely. She snapped it in front of her, barely catching his flesh with it.

His whole body jumped to an alerted state as the tip of the whip nipped at his skin. "Argh, damn it witch!" He yelled at her while slightly wincing from the sting. "Give me that damn thing!"

Jumping from his sitting position, he lunged at Nami only for her to step aside and snap him with the whip again. Zoro then gave chase as she burst into a fit of laughter. The chase lasted for several minutes despite the small area of the crows-nest. He eventually gave up, despite never being able to rid the woman of her new teaching tool, so they could resume their dancing session.

They practiced well through the night and into the early hours of the morning, not stopping until the sun was rising into the sky. Eventually they both went their separate ways to get some sleep before breakfast. As Nami lay in her bed and closed her eyes, the first image to come to her mind was of Zoro. And as Zoro found a position on the lawn deck to close his sleep, he would dream of Nami.

**End Chapter 4**

Notes from Author: The whole photo shoot scene, especially where Zoro was watching Nami, was inspired by **Halestorm's **song '**I Get Off**'… If you're not familiar with it, you could always check it out on youtube(I suggest watching an amv and not the official video) to get an idea of what may have been going on inside my mind while writing that scene ;)

Sorry about the delay in posting this chapter, I actually started writing it a couple of weeks ago but have been so exhausted that I could only write a couple of paragraphs at a time.

I'm still dealing with some personal/legal issues, but I'm going to try to start working on the next chapter soon.

As always: feel free to tell me what you think, scold me for being lazy and taking too long to update, whatever ya want to say is fine. Until next time -fmdevil-


	5. Chapter 5

A couple quick things: First of all; sorry that it's been over a month since I last updated, this has got to be the hardest chapter I have ever wrote, I literally rewrote this at least 5 times. With that being said; It is also the longest chapter I have ever wrote = **IT'S OVER 9000 **(sorry, always wanted to say that), so I hope the length at least makes up for the late update a little bit… Well, no more wasting everybody's time, hope you enjoy.

And for the record, still don't own One Piece.

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**Dance the Night Away Chapter 5**

Day six of competitions, breakfast time; the entire crew had gathered into the kitchen of their beloved ship to eat breakfast together. As always Sanji was busily cooking up food for everyone; he was expertly keeping the helpings of food coming to keep his bottomless pit of a captain satisfied, while still managing to give special attention to his two lovely angels.

Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, Franky, and Brook were engaged in telling each other outlandish stories, as well as arguing over what they were going to do that day, while hurriedly shoveling food into their mouths in order to make sure that Luffy didn't eat it all.

The two female members of the crew, Nami and Robin, had been talking amongst themselves about all the different purchases they had bought the previous day, as well as some of the places they were hoping to go in the city before everyone's departure from the island, while Sanji swooned around them making sure to protect their food against their captain's greedy stretching arms.

The only member of the crew who hadn't been engaged in some sort of conversation or interaction with another member was the ship's first-mate. Zoro, who was in a seemingly crankier mood than usual, was angrily poking at his food while lost in thought. His irritated mood was caused by his recent lack of sleep. What made matters worse was the sleep that he had been getting was restless because of the recent vivid dreams he had been having, and his latest attempt at sleep had not been an exception.

He had dreamed of Nami again. This time the dream had consisted of the navigator in the full dominatrix outfit, whip and all, that she had been wearing in the shop yesterday. The only difference was that in his dream she had somehow grown bat wings, a tail, and horns. During the dream she constantly tormented him with the whip, as she barked orders at him, with a sadistic smile plastered onto her face. Though the most disturbing part of the dream was the fact, that somewhere deep inside, he was enjoying the way she was treating him.

'_Damn that witch. What the hell is she doing to me?_' He thought to himself as he stared at the mikan-head sitting directly across from him. '_I don't have time to be having these thoughts. How dare she?_' He was so lost in thought while staring at her that he hadn't noticed a hand starting to slowly creep across the table. '_How dare she invade my dreams? How dare she sit across from me and act like she is innocent, just chatting with the gloomy woman without a care in the world? And how dare she sit there and flirt with that stupid cook? Stringing him along, and manipulating him like he's a damn puppet. Is she trying to do the same to me? Like hell!_' Zoro repositioned the eating utensil in his hand so that the forks were pointing out the bottom of his closed fist. Gritting his teeth together he then brought his fist down towards the wooden table to stab it with the utensil, but the desired affect never came as he felt the metal of the fork stab into something rubbery instead of the wood of the table.

"Ow!" Zoro heard his captain scream in pain from the head of the table, causing him to look down only to find that his fork was now imbedded into Luffy's hand which was only inches from his plate. Zoro quickly pulled the fork upwards, releasing Luffy's hand so it could quickly snake back to its rightful owner.

"Why did you stab me Zoro?" The captain asked his first-mate, while blowing onto the small puncture wounds on the top of his hand to try and subdue the pain. "I just wanted a little bit of your food. It didn't look like you were eating that much of it anyway."

"Sor…sorry." The swordsman said slightly embarrassed now that the entire crew was looking at him.

"Shishishi, no biggie. It isn't even bleeding, see." Luffy reassured, showing everyone the back of his hand, as his pained expression was replaced with his trade mark smile. "But that was amazing. How did you know my hand was there? I was sure that you were distracted."

"I wasn't distracted." Zoro lied. "A true swordsman is always aware of his surroundings."

"Really, that's so awesome." Chopper beamed with stars in his eyes, not realizing that it was by pure coincidence that Zoro had stabbed Luffy's hand.

"Shishishi, and hear I thought you had just been staring at Nami the entire time." Luffy said, causing the entire crew to look at Zoro with varied expressions of intrigue (Nami, Franky, and Brook), confusion (Usopp, and Chopper), amusement (Luffy, and Robin), and anger (Sanji).

"Oi, why the hell have you been starring at Nami-swan? You damn shitty-marimo!" Sanji exclaimed while pointing an accused finger at Zoro.

"I wasn't starring at her." Zoro quickly defended. "I was just thinking, and she happened to be sitting in the direction I was facing."

"That's a laugh, a barbarian such as you trying to think." Sanji retorted as a challenging smirk formed on his face.

Zoro grit his teeth, and fought back the urge to lunge across the table to attach the blonde-cook. Instead he slid his plate of food across the table toward where his captain was sitting. "Here Luffy, you can have it." He said while getting up from his sitting position.

"Really, thanks Zoro." Luffy eagerly said as he dove at the food in front of him.

"Yeah, no problem, it's disgusting anyway." The swordsman stated as he made his way towards the exit.

"How dare you call my food disgusting? You shitty-bastard! Get your ass back here so I can kick it all over this ship!" Sanji spat at the marimo, but Zoro didn't respond. Instead he just continued for the exit, because he was in no mood to physically fight with the cook today.

-0-0-0-0-

Shortly after breakfast; Zoro had decided to look for a quiet place to try and get some more sleep, his search had somehow led him into the lower level of the ship. He was unsure of how he got there, but he found himself standing inside Channel 2 of the Soldier Docking System, staring directly at the Mini Merry II. He had decided that this would be as good a place as any to take a nap; being that few of the crew came down into the lower level, besides Franky and Usopp.

He crossed over to the small ship; climbing over the side rail, he laid down in the back seat, letting his legs hang up and over the railing to accommodate more room. He actually found it quite cozy. He took notice of the surrounding sounds as he closed his eye; the sound of movement and laughter coming from above him, the sound of the busy port just outside the ship, and the sound of Franky in his workshop tinkering with something. He let out a small yawn and a consensual sigh of relief to welcome the coming sleep. But the sleep wouldn't come as soon as he would have preferred, because as he lay there he took notice of a familiar sound coming from somewhere nearby.

The sound was from Nami's sandals walking across the wood, and it seemed to be getting closer. He remained perfectly silent, hoping that the footsteps would start to get further away, but they only kept getting closer. He heard them eventually reach the same room as him before they stopped altogether. He continued to remain silent thinking that maybe she wouldn't notice his presence there and just continue on, but soon realized that his hope was in vain as he felt the small ship shift because of weight being added to the front seat.

He slowly opened his eye to be met by the image of the navigator leaning her head over the back of the front seat to peer down at him. "So this is where you're trying to hide." She said with a smile on her face.

Zoro narrowed his eye at the woman while gritting his teeth before suddenly springing up to a sitting position to be eye level with the woman. "Damn it witch! Can't I have ten minutes of peace on this ship without you bothering me? Or is that too much to ask?" Zoro spat at her with visible irritation.

Nami's smile disappeared and was replaced by a shocked expression as she jolted backwards from the swordsman's unexpected outburst. She could only stare back at him in fearful silence as she searched her thoughts to try and figure out what she had done to anger the green-haired man in front of her.

"Well, what the hell do you want?" He angrily questioned, growing more irritated by her silence.

"You… You left earlier without hearing what everyone was doing today, and I just came to tell you." She hesitantly started to tell him. "Most of the guys are going to take part in an eating contest just for fun today, and then Brook is going to be putting on another concert tonight."

"What the hell does that got to do with me?"

"Well… The casinos are also putting on a big block party tonight, and there's going to be some live music, and tons of free booze… I just thought you'd like to know." Nami finished with a visible pout; she couldn't understand why he was upset.

"Well, you've told me. Now leave so I can go to sleep." Zoro said glaring at the woman before him.

Nami was about to get up and leave the Mini Merry II, but she stopped herself and decided to voice her confusion to Zoro instead. "What the hell is your problem? I'm trying to be nice, but you're being a real ass today."

"My problem… Is that every time I try to get some peace and quiet, or just be by myself for a little while, you seem to persist in interrupting or bothering me." He harshly responded.

"When have I interrupted you from being alone?" She asked him in a harsh tone of her own.

"You mean besides right now? How about yesterday?" He questioned back at her. "All I wanted to do yesterday was find a nice quiet place to have a drink, but no… As if all the time we've been spending in the crows-nest together these last five nights wasn't enough… I run into you. And then you end up making me go shopping with you and Robin, and you drag me into that damn store and make me sit there while the two of you have your little fun."

"You were on the opposite side of the city from where any bars were at." Nami retorted, trying to turn the conversation into her favor. "If anything, you should be grateful that I didn't let you wander around lost for the rest of the day and probably well into the night. Besides, I didn't hear you complaining about our fun while you were in the store."

"I wasn't lost. And even if I was, did you ever think that maybe I'd rather be lost so that I could just be alone with my thoughts instead of being treated like your personal pack mule for the rest of day? I'm not your damn slave! And I'm sick of you trying to manipulate me and everyone else into doing crap for you that we don't want to do!" Zoro angrily told her with clear frustration showing on his face.

Realizing that the swordsman wasn't going to back down from this confrontation Nami sat and stared at him in silence. Still trying to figure out what was bothering the man so much, the mikan-head started to repeat his last sentence over in her head. '_And I'm sick of you trying to manipulate me and everyone else into doing crap for you that we don't want to do?_' Nami pondered these words for a moment. '_Is that's what's wrong? Does he really feel like I'm manipulating him?_'

Her heart felt like it started to sink in her chest; it was only the day before that she started to come to terms that she was having feelings for Zoro, and already he was doubting her intentions. But how could she blame him? She was no longer sure what her intentions originally were. The last thing she wanted to do was to push the man further away from her by making him feel that she was just manipulating him for a large payout.

Realizing the awkward silence they were in, Nami decided to break it by telling him "If you want out of our arrangement just say the word." Her voice was soft and sad. After giving him the out, she found that she could no longer keep eye contact with him, so she looked down towards her hands that were in her lap and bit down on her lower lip as she nervously awaited his answer.

Zoro was taken aback by what she had just said. He couldn't believe that she would pass up on the opportunity to make so much beli. Furthermore; he also could hear the genuine disappointment in her voice. He wasn't sure why she was sad; whether it was from the prospect of being out all that beli, or something else. And if he was going to be honest, he didn't want to bring their arrangement to an end either.

"No." Zoro answered flatly. "I'm not backing out, a deals a deal."

Not sure how to respond to the way Zoro just answered her, Nami asked again to make sure. "It's fine if you don't want to do it anymore Zoro. I can find another partner."

"Tch, and let you hold that debt over my head for the rest of my life?" He said back to her, inwardly cringing at his own words. '_Why did I have to say it like such an asshole?_' "A man is nothing if he isn't at least good on his own word. And besides; who are you going to get to be your partner, the love-cook again? We all saw how that worked last time. I'm seeing this trough to the end." Zoro paused a moment to see if his words had any effect on Nami, but her expression didn't seem to change much. "Now… Can you just leave me alone for a while so I can get some sleep?"

Nami didn't say anything after that, she merely responded with a quiet nod of the head as she stood up and exited the small boat. Before leaving the room, she stopped at the doorway and looked back as if she wanted to say something, but decided against it and just continued to make her exit instead.

Zoro watched as she left, waiting for her to completely disappear along with the sounds of her footsteps before settling back into his laying position. He inwardly felt bad about how the conversation had gone. He never intended to come off as though their arrangement was a bother, but with all the conflicted emotions going through his head, he wasn't able to conceive another way of going about it. Trying to clear all thoughts from his mind, he let out a large sigh as he closed his eye and let sleep try to take over him again.

But once again, sleep would not come, as he heard a different set of footsteps walking with purpose towards the room he was currently in. The footsteps belonged to someone much heavier this time, and his instincts were confirmed when the Mini Merry II shifted much more dramatically as the heavier body sat in the front seat.

"What do you want, robo?" Zoro asked the older male without ever opening his eye.

"I think you and I need to have a man to man talk swords-bro."

"Not interested." Zoro quickly responded to the cyborg.

"That's fine. I'll talk and you can listen then." Franky said, receiving a low dissatisfied moan from the marimo as a response. "You've been acting real un-super today bro. And I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I was in my weapons factory upgrading the intercom system when I heard you and Nami-sis's conversation. So, you two have been meeting up in the crows-nest all week huh?"

Franky's question caught Zoro off guard, causing him to finally open his eye to meet the shipwright's gaze. "It's not what you think." The first-mate quickly defended.

"Oh yeah?" Franky raised his eyebrow at the younger man. "Here I thought the two of you were meeting up to practice for that big dance competition on the last night we're on the island. Maybe I was wrong."

"If you knew why didn't you just say something?" Zoro asked, almost growling at the large man.

"I figured that the two of you had your reasons. Besides, it really wasn't hard to tell, you haven't slept in your bunk all week. But it ain't the lack of sleep that's been getting to you, is it bro? You're having feelings for the girlie and you don't know what you're supposed to do about them right?"

Franky's questions caused Zoro to spring straight up from his laying position so he could give the older man a shocked expression. "There's no way in hell I'm having feelings for Nami!" He quickly yelled in defense.

"Who are you trying to kid? That lie is easier to see through than some of long-nose-bro's stories." Zoro didn't respond, instead he just sat there and gave Franky a threating death glare which the large man ignored. "But that still ain't what's bothering you the most. What's bothering you the most is that you can't figure out whether you're just now developing these feelings, or whether you've had them all along?"

"What the hell makes you think I've had feelings for her all along?"

"Well… besides Brook I'm the newest member to this crew, and I wasn't around very long before we all got separated from each other at Sabaody Archipelago, but I was still around long enough to notice a couple things about each of the crew, even you. First of all: you are probably the manliest of men on this crew, even more so than me. Second: besides when you get a direct order from Mugiwara himself, you don't normally do things that you don't want to do. With that being said, there has always been one exception to that second fact, and that's Nami-sis. That girl can get you to do all kinds of things that any of us wouldn't even try asking of you."

"She doesn't get… that's because she is constantly blackmailing me with that damn debt!" Zoro spat at the other man.

"You mean that debt that you insist that you don't owe? Face it bro, you let her hold that debt over you so that she needs a reason to keep you around. You like how that debt keeps the two of you connected somehow." Franky paused to wait for Zoro respond, but only got a confused blank stare instead, so he decided to continue. "Another thing bothering you is that you're afraid. You're afraid that once your debt is paid off you won't have anything that connects you two anymore. And you're also afraid that you're feelings for girlie are going to get in the way of your dream."

"I'm not afraid of anything."

"That might be true on the battlefield, or when it comes to physical danger, but when it comes to things you can't take head on you get scared just like the rest of us. What you have to realize though, is that if Nami-sis is having feelings for you as well, she's scared too. And that little conversation you guys had probably didn't make her feel any better." Franky paused momentarily to see if what he had said sunk into Zoro at all, and by the look on the younger man's face, he was sure it did. "You know swords-bro; life's too short to not live it to the fullest, especially for us pirates, and who says you can't have both the girlie and your dream. Now I ain't telling you what to do, or how to live your life. All I'm saying is that maybe you should think about what you really want before you go dismissing something that might turn out to be really super."

Zoro looked bewildered at the man in front of him; he couldn't believe that something so wise and thoughtful had come from him. He couldn't even find words to tell the man what was going through his mind at the moment, instead he just gave a slight nod of the head to confirm he understood.

Franky slapped his giant hands on the back of the seat to help himself stand up, he then hopped over the railing of the Mini Merry II to start making his exit, but before leaving he turned to Zoro and asked… "So, are we super swords-bro?"… While giving Zoro a big thumbs up.

Zoro rolled his eye before closing it and settling back down into the back seat before responding… "Yeah, yeah, thanks for the talk uncle Franky." …in an extremely sarcastic tone.

"Ow! Don't call me uncle! That makes me sound too old! If anything, call me your SUPER BIG-BRO!" Franky exclaimed while striking his signature pose.

"Not gonna happen." Zoro flatly responded without ever re-opening his eye. Zoro could hear Franky's huge metal shoulders slump in defeat as he left the room to head back towards his work area.

Now finally alone; Zoro lay in the small ship, pondering the conversation he had just had. He knew that the conversation just left him with more questions than answers, but wasn't sure if he was ready to find the answers. The only thing he had known for sure was that he had been too harsh with Nami earlier, and would have to find a way to make up for it. Realizing that he would not be getting any sleep until the matter was off his mind, he let out a defeated sigh as he rose from his laying position, and he then exited the Mini Merry II so he could go find the mikan-head.

-0-0-0-0-

Roughly an hour of wandering the ship later: Zoro found himself standing in front of the library door. He had been told by Robin that Nami was in the library working on her maps nearly 50 minutes ago, but because of how Franky had built the ship so that every one of the rooms would randomly change location, it had taken him several attempts to reach his destination. Finally standing in front of the door, Zoro realized that he had not planned out what he was going to do or say once he was near the woman he had been seeking.

Trying to buy himself some more time, he cautiously knocked on the door and waited for her to respond before proceeding. "It's open." She answered. Building up his resolve, he proceeded into the room only to be met by her curious eyes once inside, causing him to momentarily freeze on the spot.

Upon seeing that it was Zoro who entered the room, Nami rolled her eyes in slight irritation before returning to her maps. "What, you're already done with your nap, and you decided that you wanted to be an ass to me some more?" She asked him with a hint of venom in her tone.

Her tone caused Zoro to want to yell back at her with his own venomous retort, but then he remembered why he was there in the first place. Deciding against his normal-angry approach, he crossed the room to stand beside her, and calmly responded "I couldn't sleep, there was too much on my mind."

"Tch, are you trying to say that you think about more than just swords and booze?" She continued without looking up from her maps.

Zoro clenched his teeth and balled his fist, he was trying everything not to explode at her "Damn it witch I'm trying to…" He started to say, but stopped himself. Nami slightly braced for the screaming match to start, but it never came, instead she heard him give a defeated sigh before he continued. "…I'm sorry, ok."

Nami's eyes opened wide in surprise from his statement, she placed her drawing utensil down and looked up at the man beside her with a slightly confused expression on her face. "You're sorry? What are you sorry for?"

"For snapping on you earlier." He answered in a soft voice. "You didn't deserve it. Like I said; I've got a lot on my mind, and was just taking my frustrations out on you. I'm sorry."

Nami couldn't believe what she was hearing. It was very rare that Zoro apologized for something, yet here he came out of his way to apologize to her. Her heart started to beat faster in her chest as she looked at the man in front of her; the fact is that she hadn't wanted to be mad at him, and now that he was here looking for her forgiveness, she couldn't help but want to give it to him.

"It's ok. I haven't been myself lately either. I'm sure it's because we've both been over working ourselves these past couple of days." She told him with a reassuring sincere smile.

Zoro let out a small sigh of relief as he could feel the tension it the room starting to leave. "So, we're still going to practice later, right?"

"Of course," Nami said relieved that he still wanted to continue their dance sessions. "We only got a couple of days left before the competition, and we gotta make them count if we're going to get a routine perfected in time. You should probably try and get some rest, maybe you'll feel better."

"Yeah, good idea," Zoro looked around the library and his eye settled on the bench that surrounded the room for a moment before turning back to Nami. "You mind if I crash in here for a bit? It's nice and quiet."

Nami knew that Zoro didn't need to ask, it was just as much his ship as it was hers, but she appreciated that he didn't want to be a burden on her. "As long as my presence doesn't bother you, and you don't start snoring, by all means suite yourself." She answered with a smile before returning to her maps.

Zoro gave her a slight nod as a show of thanks before crossing to the bench. As he lay down he noticed that he felt lighter, like a huge weight had been lifted off of him. As to why he felt this way he wasn't sure. Was it because he had been feeling bad about snapping on Nami earlier, and now that he had apologized and she accepted, that burden was gone? Or was it because he was finally starting to come to terms with his feelings? His mind would not dwell on the matter for very long though; because almost as immediately that he closed his eye, he drifted off to a peaceful sleep.

As Nami continued to work on her maps, she would occasionally glance over at the sleeping swordsman. She was happy that the awkward atmosphere from earlier had seemed to completely vanish all together, and was now replaced by a comfortable one. She couldn't help but revel in the fact that all the sad/angry feelings that she had been feeling towards the man had seemed to completely disappear, and a revived sense of hope that her feelings might not be completely one-sided washed over her entire being.

She found herself humming a soft tune as she engrossed herself back into her map making, all the while not noticing the small smile that had unconsciously formed on Zoro's face as his sleeping form listened to the sound of her melodic humming.

-0-0-0-0-

It was several hours later still on board the 1000 Sunny. Most of the crew had left sometime before to go into the city to take part in their pre-planned activities. It was already well into the evening; yet Zoro had remained sleeping in the library, completely undisturbed, until he was awoken from his peaceful slumber by an extremely loud… "SSUUPPEERR… SSUUPPEERR… SSUUPPEERR…" alarm sound coming directly from the intercom system.

He fell from the bench covering his ears with both hands to try and block out the sound that was shaking the entire ship. He fought to his feet, desperately trying to completely regain his equilibrium, to search for the source of the annoying sound. His search led him to Franky's workshop where he found the cyborg diligently tinkering away at something while wearing a set of earmuffs.

"Oi, would you turn that off?" Zoro tried to scream over the loud sound to get the older man's attention, but to no avail. "Hey, shut that crap off!" Zoro screamed again, still getting no reaction from his shipmate. "Listen to me when I'm talking to you, you stupid metal bastard!" Removing one hand from over his ear, Zoro tightened it into a fist before colliding it with the back of the other man's head, causing a metallic sound to resonate throughout the room.

Zoro's action did have the desired effect though, as the larger man's head turned around to meet the gaze of the furious swordsman's. Upon seeing the pained look in the younger man's face, Franky quickly realized the source of the pain and turned off the intercom system to end the noise.

"Sorry swords-bro, didn't realize anyone else was still on the ship." Franky apologized as he removed his earmuffs.

"What the hell was that?" Zoro asked while he tried to regain his composure, hoping the ringing in his ears would soon subside.

"Ow, I'm glad you asked bro." The shipwright stated while getting excited that the younger man was interested in his work. "That's the new upgrade I made to Sunny Bro's intercom system. I call it the Super Battle Alert System. It alerts the crew in case of an enemy boarding, as well as the extreme decibel disorients the enemy, making it a great defense weapon. ISN'T IT…"

Franky went to strike his signature pose and finish with his signature catch phrase, but was cut off by the tip of Wado Ichimonji being pressed lightly into his throat, causing him to freeze in mid pose. "Say that word again, and I'll cut you into scrap metal." The swordsman said while giving off an intense killing aura, causing the larger man to gulp while a drop of sweat formed on his brow.

"Ok, I understand." Franky said as he let his tiny hand eject from his large right hand to cautiously remove the sword's tip from his throat. "That word is probably still ringing in your ears, huh?"

Seeing that the older man understood, Zoro put Wado back into its sheath before asking… "You said you didn't think anyone else was on the ship. Where did everyone go?"

"They all went into the city hours ago. I think the girls were going shopping while the rest of the guys were going to another eating contest. But that was hours ago. Brook's concert should have started by now, so they should all be there." Franky explained as he sat down on the floor, opened his stomach cooler, and pulled out a bottle of cola to start drinking it.

"Why didn't you go?" Zoro asked out of curiosity.

"I wanted to get these upgrades finished before we leave port in a couple of days, and thought that while everyone was out tonight, it would be the perfect opportunity." The cyborg answered before continuing… "But I had no idea you were still on the ship."

"Hmm…" Zoro responded while nodding his head to confirm he understood. "Well I'll leave you to it then."

"Oh yeah? Thanks bro." The shipwright said realizing that Zoro meant he would be leaving. The swordsman then turned for the exit, but before he could leave he was stopped by Franky's voice. "By the way bro, you look like you're walking taller than earlier. Did you lose some weight?"

Zoro looked back at the man and knew what he had meant; he did feel much lighter after his little talk with Nami. Zoro gave a slight smile before responding to Franky. "I guess I was just finally able to get some sleep."

Not another word was said between the two, only slight smiles and nods of the head, before Zoro made his exit out of the workshop and off the ship. He proceeded up the docks and into town to find something to do for the next couple of hours.

-0-0-0-0-

Zoro had wandered the town aimlessly for about an hour looking for a place he could get some alcohol. Deciding that he didn't want a repeat of the previous day and he couldn't trust the directions that the directionally-challenged town's people would give him, he decided to just trust his own instincts and go where his feet told him to.

Eventually he came across a large public square where many people had gathered. The people were dancing on a make shift dance floor in the middle of the street as a band was playing loudly on a covered-stage in front of the crowd. On each side of the dance floor Zoro could see two outside bars that were under temporary canopies that were serving drinks to anyone who stepped up to them. This must have been the location of the block party that Nami had mentioned earlier.

Noticing an empty stool in front of the bar to his left, Zoro made his way through the thick crowd of people, getting unintentionally bumped or shoved several times, before he was able to sit down on the stool. He waited for several minutes without being served, growing more irritable with the ruckus crowd by the moment. If he didn't get a drink soon he was going to have to murder someone.

Luckily for the crowd, his killing spree never came, as a clean-shaven man in his late twenties with long-straight-brown-hair that was pulled back into a pony-tail stood in front of him behind the bar. "Hello sir, my name is Cecil, what can I get ya?"

Zoro stared at the man in front of him for a moment, he felt that he had met this man before, but couldn't place where. Deciding not to dwell on the matter any further, Zoro responded to the man by saying… "The hardest stuff you got."

"I figured as much." Cecil said as he got out a bottle of rum from under the counter, pouring the liquid into a glass of ice, filling it only a quarter of the way before filling the rest of the glass with cola.

"Oi, what's with the filler?" Zoro asked irritated by the lack of alcohol in the glass. "I don't want the cola, just give me the booze."

"Sorry sir, we have to water down the drinks." Cecil politely apologized. "But if you want free drinks that aren't watered down, either the Bailey's or Kuhlua casinos would be more than willing to serve you on their gambling floors."

Zoro narrowed his eye at the man. '_There is always a damn catch, isn't there?_' He thought to himself before grumbling out a… "Just keep them coming." …in response. "By the way…" Zoro continued. "Is it always this damn busy at one of these things?"

"No. This is actually one of the slower block parties we have." The man responded. "But the world famous Soul King Brook is having a concert right now. It will probably get even busier when the concert is over."

'_Oh goody._' Zoro thought sarcastically to himself as he downed the contents of the glass in front of him.

-0-0-0-0-

Sometime had passed, the sun had completely set and night had taken over. Zoro was still sitting in the same spot in front of the bar. Despite it being against the rules, Cecil had started making Zoro's drinks a little stronger. The bartender decided it was probably best to keep the swordsman it the best mood he could in order to prevent said swordsman from lashing out at the steadily increasing crowd.

While at the bar; Zoro just drowned out most of the noise coming from the crowd and the band, and engrossed himself in the alcohol in front of him. Occasionally a woman or two would come and try to flirt with him or try to convince him to dance with them, but he would just wave them off and return to his drink.

Every now and then, he found himself listening to some of the music that the band was playing, but he would never pay too close of attention because the band had a much louder and more aggressive style than he would have normally preferred.

It wasn't till the band had stopped momentarily to announce their next song that he got the sudden urge to turn around on his stool and look into the crowd. He found it odd; it was like an invisible force was trying to draw him into the sea of people. He scanned the crowd to see what was supposed to be drawing his attention. And just as the band started to play its next song, he saw it.

At first it was just a quick flash of orange in the middle of the dance floor. But as the music started to continue, and the crowd started to get into a rhythm, they seemed to separate and make room for an unstoppable force of nature that was centered in the middle of the dance floor, allowing Zoro a full view of that force of nature from where he was sitting. And what he saw was Nami.

Nami was by-herself directly in the middle of the dance floor moving perfectly in rhythm to the music. With her eyes closed, she was swaying her hips with one hand resting on her exposed stomach, and the other in the air holding an almost empty bottle of alcohol.

Zoro stared in amazement as she unknowingly commanded his attention from across the crowd. He wetted his lips as his eye followed her movements, never blinking because of fear that he might miss something.

He watched as a guy from the crowd approached Nami from behind to try and grab her hips to start dancing with her. Zoro instinctively grabbed for his sword Sushui and prepared himself to charge into the crowd and teach the poor bastard a lesson. But he wouldn't have to, because Nami bucked her hips and her buttocks backwards and upwards into the man's stomach, successfully knocking the wind out of him.

Zoro removed his hand from Sushui's hilt and settled himself back onto his stool as he watched the mikan-head take a few steps forward from the man. She tipped the bottle in her hand upwards into her mouth to finish the rest of its contents, and showed the man the middle finger of her free hand as she continued to walk away from his cursing form, never turning around to acknowledge him with eye contact. As she continued to walk forward, she did make contact with Zoro though. Upon seeing the marimo, a smile quickly formed on her face as she made her way through the crowd to where he was sitting.

Once she reached his position, she slammed her now empty bottle onto the bar beside him and turned to him to say… "C'mon Zoro, come dance with me."

The swordsman had no time to react as she grabbed his wrist and drug him onto the dance floor. Once they found a small clearing, she turned to him, placing both of his hands on each side of her waist as she wrapped her hands lightly around his neck, intertwining her fingers behind his head.

He initially tried to protest, not wanting to dance around so many people and all, but found that she was not listening and started to move her hips along to the music anyway. He reluctantly gave in and desperately tried to match her rhythm but couldn't let the distraction from the rest of the dancing crowd escape his mind.

Just as he was about to give up and head back to the bar, Nami pulled her head close to his ear and told him… "It's going to rain."

Zoro looked into the night's sky, and almost on cue, a single droplet of water smacked Zoro directly on the forehead. The music slowed momentarily as more rain started to fall. Zoro expected the women in front of him to want to run for cover, but she hadn't moved from her position, in fact, no one in the crowd had.

With Nami still swaying to the music under his hands; Zoro closed his eye and felt the rain start to wash over him. With each droplet of water, Zoro could feel all hesitation and distraction leaving his body. He felt himself start to move to the music in perfect rhythm with Nami. As he opened his eye, it was as if the crowd, the street, the band, everything had disappeared. The only things left were Zoro, Nami, and the music.

The music picked back up again, and so did Nami and Zoro's rhythm, as well as the rain. They danced in the pouring rain in perfect harmony for the remainder of the song. When the song ended, they came to an abrupt stop; Nami leaned into the swordsman to rest for a moment as they both breathed heavily. Zoro closed his eye again and tilted his head back towards the sky to catch the rain on his face.

He was unaware of the expression on his face until Nami brought him back down to reality. "You're smiling." She said in an amused tone.

Zoro opened his eye and looked down at her, replacing his smile with a look of confusion instead. "You're having fun, aren't you?" Nami asked him while giving him a smile that could rival even Luffy's.

Before Zoro could answer, the band broke his concentration by announcing that they would be playing one last song, and that it would be a slow song. He stood there for a moment trying to figure out what he should do, and then the music started playing. He contemplated fleeing the dance floor, but the thought was stopped by the feeling of Nami wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Are you seriously thinking of leaving me hanging here?" She asked while looking up at him. "One more dance isn't going to kill you, is it?" Zoro didn't say anything; instead he just nodded his head and wrapped his own arms around the backs of her shoulders to confirm he would stay.

What they were doing couldn't really be considered dancing; it was more like just swaying side to side along with the rhythm of the music. This was because: as the cold rain continued to fall onto the crowded dance floor, the people started to close in all the gaps, presumably to share in the body heat of the others nearby. Zoro would have normally been uncomfortable with this setting if not for the fact that something felt just so right about Nami being in his arms at that moment. He couldn't help but notice how perfectly she seemed to fit into his arms as she rested her head on his chest, or how the heat from her body completely warmed his own despite the chill of the rain falling over them.

The one thing he did find odd was a fierce heat that was concentrated on the back of his neck. He wasn't sure how, but he knew this heat wasn't coming from the woman in his arms. The heat itself felt angry, piercing, and yet strangely familiar. Deciding to find the source of the heat; he slowly turned both Nami and himself in a 180 degree direction so he could face the opposite end of the stage, only to be met by the piercing glance of a very angry looking Sanji, who had been standing at the edge of the dance floor under an umbrella while smoking a cigarette.

Zoro became slightly concerned that the cook would make a scene and ruin this moment he was having with the navigator as he watched Sanji take a final drag from his cigarette, before angrily throwing the butt to the ground, and stomping it out. Zoro slightly tensed as he watched Sanji start to take several steps towards the duo.

But Sanji never made it to them… Instead he found himself surrounded by a few lovely women who had latched themselves onto him to hide themselves from the rain under his umbrella. His once angry expression was completely replaced by a blissful one as his one visible eye was replaced by a heart.

Zoro gave a slight sigh of relief as he relaxed his body again, finding himself thankful for once that the cook was easily distracted. He then resumed his dance with Nami until the music came to a stop. Once stopped; he reluctantly removed his arms from around her, and waited for her to do the same.

Removing her arms from around his waist, and looking up at him, Nami said. "Thank you for the dance Zoro. It was fun."

"Yeah, no problem." He said to her as a simple response.

They remained looking into each-other's eyes for several moments in complete silence, with the rain still beating down on them, both wanting to say something to the other, but neither finding the words. They hadn't even noticed the crowd start to clear out and head for cover now that the show was over. Finally, out of the corner of her eye, Nami had noticed someone at the edge of the dance floor that caught her attention.

"Robin?" Nami said aloud as she turned to look at the older woman standing nearby under an umbrella. "I thought everyone went back to the ship. What are you doing here?" She asked as she crossed the space separating them, getting under Robin's umbrella, with Zoro only a few steps behind.

"Well, Luffy-san wanted to have a party to celebrate Brook's concert…" The archeologist began. "But cook-san refused to cook any food without you present, so Luffy sent us both to come find you and kenshi-san."

"Sanji is here too, where?" Nami asked as she huddled closer to Robin to try and steal some of her warmth.

Both Robin and Zoro pointed over to Sanji's location where he was being engaged by the three ladies still in full-blown love-cook mode. Nami shook her head slightly at the man's antics before calling out to him. "Sanji-kun, are you ready to go back to the ship now?"

Hearing Nami's voice; Sanji snapped out of his blissful stupor to respond. "Aye Nami-swan, I will be there in just a second my angel." He then bid farewell to his three new friends before crossing over to his three nakama. "I'm sorry for the wait my angels. I would be more than happy to let the both of you share my umbrella with me on the way back to the ship."

"That's ok Sanji-kun." Nami replied, waving her hand to dismiss Sanji's invitation. "Robin and I will share hers. You can share yours with Zoro." She said as her and Robin turned to start heading for the ship.

"Oi, why the hell am I being punished?" Zoro angrily questioned, only to be ignored by the two women.

"Watch what you say you shitty-bastard." Sanji said threateningly while glaring at the marimo. "You should just be grateful that Nami-swan is so kind that she shows concern for a mongrel like you. Now hurry up and let's go, otherwise you'll just end up getting lost on the way back to the ship."

-0-0-0-0-

Zoro found the walk back to the ship very odd. The cook who walked beside him had remained silent the entire time, the only sounds coming from him being the sharp intakes of air from taking drags of his cigarettes. Zoro had expected the other man to be vocally confrontational, but instead only got the occasional glare from him instead.

After returning to the ship the silence ended as Luffy's party got underway. They had all decided to gather in the aquarium-bar since it had still been raining outside. Luffy insisted that Brook play some of the songs he had sung at the concert earlier as Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper sung along. Franky occasionally joined in the singing when he wasn't busy bragging about all his upgrades to the ship he made. While Robin, Nami, and Zoro sat around drinking with Sanji catering to the needs of the two women.

Eventually the party died down along with the rain outside, and everyone started to settle down for the night. Chopper was the first to pass out, with Brook a close second. Realizing that sleep was coming soon; Usopp scooped up the small reindeer and had carried him off to the men's quarters, while a groggy Luffy followed a few steps behind, leaving Sanji to drag the unconscious skeleton across the deck by one foot.

The only ones remaining in the aquarium bar were Franky: who was still tinkering with the intercom system, Robin: who was quietly reading a book, Zoro: who was drinking a bottle of sake, and Nami: who was passed out on the couch.

Seeing Nami asleep on the couch, Zoro walked over to her wondering if he should wake her. After all; they were supposed to meet up in the crows-nest for their dance practice and night watch.

Seemingly reading the swordsman's mind Robin spoke up without ever looking up from her book. "Maybe you should let her sleep kenshi-san? She seems to be quite tired."

"Uh… Yeah but..." Zoro tried to think of a reason why to wake her without telling the two older crew members that he had been looking forward to his dance session with the mikan-head. "She's scheduled for watch right now."

"Oh that's ok." Robin replied. "I'll take her shift tonight. I would like to read more of this book anyway."

"Yeah bro, don't worry about it." Franky said chiming in. "Why don't you take tonight off yourself, I'll cover your shift. It might do ya some good to sleep in your own bunk for one night."

Zoro gave a slight nod to show he understood before letting out a small, almost unnoticeable, disappointed sigh and headed for the exit. But before he left the room he was stopped by the sound of Robin's voice. "Would you mind doing me a favor before you leave though, kenshi-san?"

Zoro turned to her with an inquisitive look. "Would you please take Nami-san to our room?" The archeologist asked the younger man. "I'm sure she would like to sleep in her own bed."

Zoro crossed over to the sleeping woman and scooped her into his arms bridal style; he then proceeded to the exit again and was able to get the door open without disturbing her sleep. Before making his leave he gave one last look to Robin and Franky, for a moment he could have sworn that he saw the two older crewmates wink at each other, putting the thought to the back of his mind he said his goodnights and then proceeded across the deck towards the sleeping quarters.

Once inside the women's quarters; Zoro laid Nami onto her bed, and stood above her for several moments while watching her sleeping form. He couldn't help but notice how innocent she looked when she slept compared to the contrast of her personality when she was awake. While awake she was fiery and sometimes off-putting, stubborn and often irrational, and for many lesser beings she would be intimidating. But asleep she was peaceful yet radiant, warm and approachable.

He wasn't sure what had possessed him to do so; but as he stood over her, he took his hand to remove some of the hair that was in her face and place it behind her ear. And before realizing his own actions; he bent down to place a light kiss onto her cheek. Once realizing his actions he quickly raised from his leaning position, a light pink tint formed on his face as he scanned the room to see if anyone had scene his actions. When Nami slightly stirred; Zoro quickly backed out of the room and closed the door as quietly as he could, before making his way downstairs to the men's quarters and settling in his own bunk.

-0-0-0-0-

Back in the women's quarters; upon hearing the door clicking shut, Nami slowly sat up from her bed and looked around the room, still half asleep, expecting to find Robin in the room with her. When she didn't see the older woman she simply shrugged her shoulders and lay back in her bed. She had been having the strangest dream; she had dreamt that Zoro had been standing over her, and had kissed her on her cheek. The dream had felt so real that she could have sworn that the warmth of his lips was still present on her face. '_Yeah right, like Zoro would ever do that._' She thought to herself shortly before letting sleep retake her. She couldn't help but smile as her hand went to the side of her face to rest where Zoro's lips had been.

**End Chapter 5**

…

Author notes: First of all I would like to thank everybody who has been asking me when my next update was going to be (you all know who you are), there was actually a point where I wanted to give up on this, but all you guys/gals encouragement kept me going.

Speaking of encouragement; I gotta give a **HUGE** shout out to **megazawa**, he drew a picture of a scene from 'Delirious Awkward Moments', which was just so damn cool in my opinion, it was the final motivation I needed to finish this chapter so… THANK YOU **megazawa**! If any of you are interested you can find it on his profile page or the zoronamifc page both on deviantART.

Now about this chapter: Some of the music which inspired me for this chapter was from **Since October**. The songs were **'The Way You Move' (Track 1 from their 'Life, Scars, Apologies' CD) **for the scene where Zoro first noticed Nami on the dance floor all the way to the end of their first dance, and **'My Only' (Track 10, same CD) **for the slow dance.

And for those of you who are wondering who the hell Cecil was, It was just a shameless reference to my 'Pleasure's Guilty' story **;p**

PS: Does anyone have a preference on whether I continue to use the beli translation (the reason I use this translation is because it is the one that One Piece Wiki has listed) or would you prefer if I start using the beri translation (which is the one that the current Funimation dub uses). Let me know which one you guys/gals would prefer.

Until next time -fmdevil-


	6. Chapter 6

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned. It has been over 2 months since my last update… What the hell am I blabbering on about? I'm an atheist that goes by the pen name fmdevil… Seems kind of pointless to ask for forgiveness for sins. Anyways… No more wasting your time. Hope you enjoy this next chapter.

For the record: Still don't own One Piece.

…

**Dance the Night Away Chapter 6**

The next day after the block party went by quickly: After the crew had all had breakfast together, most of them had split into different groups to go into the city.

Luffy, Chopper, Usopp and Brook had gone to check out an amusement park that they had heard about the previous day, and had planned on spending the whole day there.

Robin had heard about a local museum which was featuring an exhibit on historical sailing vessels and ships. Seeing as that the exhibit might interest Franky, she invited him to come along with her which he was only happy to oblige.

Being the crowned Chef King of the entire island; Sanji had been asked to do the ribbon cutting ceremony for a new restaurant opening that day. But once there, he had hijacked the opening by taking over the kitchen to make dishes for all the lovely ladies and local celebrities attending the event. The restaurant owners made no arguments because it had been great for business, as the restaurant was packed with excited patrons the entire day hoping to get to try one of Sanji's now famous dishes.

Zoro and Nami had both opted to remain on the ship. Nami said she was going to work on her maps all day, while Zoro had told everyone that he was going to train and sleep; when in actuality the two had decided to use the fact that the ship was going to be vacant for the entire day to get in some extra dance time.

As they had started their practice session; Nami was surprised to find that all of Zoro's inhibitions about her style of dancing had seemed to completely disappear from their previous sessions, and that he had finally mastered the style before lunch had even come around. This allowed them to start working on a planned routine for the competition that was only two days away.

After a quick lunch break and an extensive arguing match on the styles they would use for the competition, which Nami won, they had got right back to work on their routine. The hours had flown by as if they were only minutes. Neither of them had even noticed that the sun had started to set and that night was starting to take over until the crew had started returning to the ship.

Franky and Robin were the first ones to return; when they had arrived they noticed the shadows moving in the crows-nest and let the two continue undisturbed until more members of the crew started to show up. Once Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, and Brook were on the docks; Robin quietly let Nami know by making an arm appear on the younger woman and directing the navigator's attention towards the coming quartet, bringing a temporary end to their practice. Sanji was the last to arrive on the ship.

After a very ruckus dinner, the crew had sat around and exchanged stories of what they had done that day. The only two that remained quite were Nami and Zoro. Zoro was passing the time before the night watch by sleeping, and Nami was just enjoying listening to everyone's stories.

Once the crew settled for the evening and the night watch began; Zoro and Nami continued their session until well into the morning hours of the next day.

-0-0-0-0-

Day 8 of competitions: It was early morning and breakfast time on the Sunny. Breakfast had started as usual; with most of the men rushing to the table to fight their captain for food, while the two women of the crew sat and talked quietly with each other, with a seemingly tired Zoro was being the last to arrive. But the atmosphere changed fairly quickly; because once Zoro had finished what food was on his plate, he almost immediately let his head fall forward with a thud against the wood, and fell asleep right on the spot.

Most of the crew turned their attentions on to the first-mate and watched his peculiar actions in silent wonderment, with the exception of Luffy's chewing. Though his fondness for sleeping was well documented amongst the crew, they all thought it quite unusual that he would choose that place to fall asleep. Normally he would at least put some distance between him and the rest of the members by finding a vacant corner or a nearby couch. The only two members that it didn't seem to faze were Luffy, who was actually having found memories of when his dear departed brother would act similarly, and Nami.

Nami had unconsciously started humming a happy tune to fill the silence as she continued to eat her breakfast. This caused all the crew members to turn their attention on to her instead, giving her the same look as they had just given the sleeping swordsman as they noticed the serene smile on her face.

Finally feeling that at least one of his two crewmates' unusual behaviors must be addressed, Usopp spoke up. "Hey Nami, is everything alright?"

Stopping her humming and looking up from her plate to meet the sniper's gaze, "Yeah, why do you ask Usopp?" Nami replied.

"You seem to be unusually happy today." He answered.

The navigator gave her crewmates a confused look before responding, "Why wouldn't I be happy? It's been a great time on this island. We're all having a ton of fun, and we're making a ton of money. What more could a girl ask for?" She said with a huge smile on her face, before returning to her breakfast.

And even though the crew could see the logic in what she had said, some couldn't help but think that there was still something off about her mood. "Ok, but even so, you've normally found at least something to yell at us about by now." Usopp spoke again. "You're just acting kind of strange." Usopp was expecting Nami to finally get angry and snap at him, but it never happened. Instead; it was Sanji that came to her defense.

"Oi, you watch your mouth you shitty long-nose!" The cook spat at Usopp while pointing a threatening finger, causing the sniper to start to shake in terror. "There is nothing strange about Nami-san. She can be in any mood she wants to be. If you continue to be rude to her, or any lady for that matter, I'll kick your ass all over this island. Ya got that?"

"Ye… yes, Sanji. I… I'm sorry." Usopp quickly apologized to his crewmate.

"Speaking of rude…" Sanji continued. "Oi, marimo, wake your dumbass up. How dare you fall asleep on my table?" Sanji started to move around the table to make his way over to the sleeping swordsman who was unaffected by the cook's words. "You should be ashamed for making lovely Nami-san, and beautiful Robin-chan have to see something so unsightly." Sanji prepared to deliver a kick to his still snoozing rival to wake him, but was stopped by the sound of Nami's voice.

"Just let him sleep Sanji-kun." Nami spoke quietly without ever looking up from her food. "He and I are going out tonight, and it would be best if he was well rested."

The navigator's statement caused several different reactions from the crew: Brook, Franky, Usopp, and Sanji's mouths all fell open in shock. Luffy and Chopper looked on confused. While Robin simply sat by quietly with an amused smile on her face because she knew that all the males were taking what the younger woman had said out of context.

Sanji was the first to speak to address the bombshell that Nami had just dropped on all of them. "Nami-san is go… going out with the m… marimo tonight." He said through stammered words, getting a confused look from the mikan-head in response. "Oh say it isn't so, Nami-san. Please tell me that you haven't chosen the beast over your knight in shining armor." Sanji then rounded the table and kneeled in front of Nami, grabbing her hands and looking up at her in a pleading fashion.

The cook's desperation was only causing Nami's confusion to deepen, as she looked around at the rest of the crew to see if someone would elaborate on what caused her blonde nakama to act in such a way all of a sudden.

"So you and swords-bro are going on a date tonight sis?" Franky inquired for clarification, shocked that the two of them were already being open with their 'relationship.'

Realizing the cause of the commotion, Nami's face flushed red with embarrassment as she ripped her hands from Sanji's so she could wave her arms in a crossing motion in front of her face. "No, no. You've all got the wrong idea." She quickly defended. "It's not a date. Tonight is the night of the paired drinking competition that I mentioned the second day we arrived on the island. Since Zoro and I have the highest alcohol tolerance on the crew; it' only natural that we would take place in the contest."

Nami's clarification helped ease Sanji's worry. "How silly of me to think of something so absurd…" The cook started saying as he regained his composure. "Please forgive me for even letting the thought cross my mind Nami-san." He finished stating while he rose to his feet and gave a polite bow to the woman in front of him.

"It's no problem Sanji-kun. You have nothing to apologize about." Nami said to reassure her nakama. But after she did, she couldn't help but feel slightly down about what had just transpired. '_What if I really was going on a date with Zoro? Is this how the crew would react?_' She mulled to herself. '_Would it really be that strange if we were?_' Nami sat in silence for the rest of the breakfast, only occasionally looking over at the sleeping swordsman, again having to wonder if she was even allowed to have romantic feelings for him at all.

-0-0-0-0-

A little later on the deck just outside the kitchen: Luffy didn't care what other people said; he was a damn good artist, and this was some of his best work ever, even Usopp had to take notice and watch as the straw-hat wearing captain showed his superior artistic skills. He stared at his masterpiece intently, with one colored marker in hand and another in his mouth, as he wondered what he could add to his canvas to make his greatest work of art even better.

Doing his best to fight back his laughter; Usopp decided to strike up a conversation with his best friend, "Hey Luffy, isn't Zoro sleeping a little more than usual today?"

"Maybe a little bit. Why?" Luffy said after removing the marker from his mouth to respond to his long-nose nakama.

"I just thought that it was kinda weird." Usopp continued. "He didn't respond to any of Sanji's taunts or to you poking him in the head for five minutes. I don't think he would have even left the table if it wasn't for Sanji picking him up and tossing him out the kitchen once Robin and Nami had left. And then he just leaned against the wall and fell right back asleep."

"Shishishi…" Luffy laughed remembering the scene that had took place only a little earlier, "That was really funny. But why do you think that was weird? Sanji always acts like that to Zoro."

"It's not the way Sanji was acting that I think is weird. I don't know. Maybe I'm just over thinking things." The sniper confessed. "He probably just trained really hard when we were all at the amusement park yesterday, and during his night watch."

"Zoro wasn't training during his night watch." Luffy said matter-of-factly without elaborating any further. Instead he finished coloring the last part of his masterpiece before leaning back to make sure it was perfect. "There… done… what do you think Usopp?" He then looked to his side to get his friends opinion, but found no one there. "Usopp… Where did you go?"

"Psst… Luffy…" Usopp whispered from behind the forward mast at his friend who was still on the second deck just outside the kitchen. "Get away from there."

"When did you get over there?" Luffy asked the other teen, wondering why he was hiding all of a sudden. "Did you want to play Hide and Seek now?"

"Danger Luffy… Just Run." Usopp responded before disappearing below deck, probably to his workshop.

"Danger? What's he talking about?" With a shrug of the shoulders Luffy returned to admire his masterpiece, but was met with a glaring eye and an ominous dark aura resonating from his first-mate.

"Luffy… What are you doing with those markers?" Zoro said through grit teeth, and visible rage building in his eye.

Realizing that he had been caught red handed; Luffy did the only logical thing he could think of. He tried to hide the markers behind his back, and then looked to his right to avoid eye contact, and put his lips together as if he was trying to whistle before saying "Nothing…" in an obvious lie. But before he could run away; he felt Zoro's hand wrap around his throat, and he found himself airborne before landing in the tree on the lawn deck upside down, hanging from a branch by his legs.

'_Damn that Luffy…_' Zoro thought to himself as he used the wall that he had been leaning on to stand up and observe some of his captain's artwork that was on his chest. '_Now I'm going to have to take a shower and wash this crap off before I head out to that drinking contest. Between him and the damn ero-cook, can't I ever just get some sleep around here?_'

Zoro made his way into the kitchen so that he could use the ladder and ascend to the bath which was located above the library. But once inside the kitchen he was met by the curious gazes of the ship's cook and musician, who had been in deep conversation about their preferences regarding panties.

The sight that befell the two perverts was one that they would never forget. Luffy had managed to draw a red bikini top with black dots onto the bare parts of Zoro's chest. But the artwork didn't stop there; Luffy had also managed to draw what he would have considered several improvements onto Zoro's face. With the black marker he had drawn an eye patch over Zoro's scarred eye, a squiggly line over his jaw line to simulate a beard, and a curled handle bar mustache. With the red marker he had colored around Zoro's good eye with four triangular points at the bottom to simulate the makeup that Luffy's good friend Bon Kurei used to wear, and to complete the okama look Luffy added red circles on each of Zoro's cheek-bones.

After seeing the site, the other two crew members in the kitchen went deathly silent in shock. They remained that way for several moments as the swordsman met their gaze. Finally the silence was broken by the high pitched laughter of the skeleton. "Yohohoho…!" Brook let out as he pounded his boney hand on the table, stopping only momentarily to wipe the visible tears from his eyes and address the swordsman. "Zoro-san, is that you? I cannot believe what my eyes are seeing. Then again, I have no eyes to see with. Yohohoho… Skull jo… ach…"

Before Brook could finish his statement, Zoro quickly grabbed him by his boney throat. The first-mate then made his way over to the door, and physically tossed the man out of the kitchen. He then turned his attention onto the blond cook who had been surprisingly silent the entire time. In-fact, he wasn't just silent, he looked almost terrified by the site in-front of him. "What…? You don't have some smart ass comment to make ero-cook?" Zoro asked still showing signs of aggravation.

"Ju… Just go to the bathroom and wash that crap off." Sanji said, finally breaking his silence as terrible memories of the time he had spent in that okama hell hole were rushing back to him. "You're really creeping me out right now marimo."

With a simple "Hmph" as a response from Zoro to the cook, said marimo proceeded up the ladder onto the garden deck to make his way towards the library.

-0-0-0-0-

In the tree, on the lawn deck: Luffy and Brook still remained in the upside down positions that they had been put in by their grumpy ship-mate.

"So Luffy-san…" Brook started. "I take it that the markers were you're doing?"

"Yep" The captain responded simply.

"I must say, that is probably your best work yet."

"I know… Shishishi…"

The two remained in the tree, just laughing away at the recent memories of the swordsman's appearance.

-0-0-0-0-

In the library: Nami was diligently working away at a map that she had been putting off all week when she heard someone enter the room. As she turned away from her work to look at who had entered; her eyes were met by the sight of the swordsman's brilliantly colored face. Her first reaction was complete and udder shock as her mouth dropped open wide, and her eyes became as big as saucers. But as the shock wore off; her expression turned to one of extreme amusement, as she burst into a fit of laughter which was so ruckus that it made her fall out of the chair and onto the floor.

"Do you want to join Brooke and Luffy in the damn tree witch?" Zoro spat, visibly angry from Nami's reaction.

"Alright… Hahaha… Just calm down…" Nami responded through broken laughter trying to regain her composure as she lifted herself off the floor. "I see Luffy was having some fun with markers again."

"I'm glad you all think this is funny." Zoro said sarcastically as he made his way over to the ladder that led up to the main bath.

"You're gonna need more than just soap and water to get that off." The navigator spoke, grabbing the man's attention before he made his ascent. "Don't you remember last time? He had only managed to draw on one swirly-brow before you caught him, but it still took over five days to completely wash off."

Looking back at the woman, Zoro asked "How the hell should I get this off then?"

Nami stared at him for a moment, thinking of a solution, before her eyes suddenly brightened. "I know what you need." She started saying as she made her way back over to her map making desk. "I have an ink remover that I use for my maps. It's able to erase the ink off the paper without ruining it, so it shouldn't be too abrasive on your skin either."

Zoro watched her dig through the desk for several moments. Once done; she returned her attention towards him, now holding a glass jar filled with a clear liquid and a small cotton cloth in her hands. "Thanks" Zoro said simply, holding out his hand to take the jar, only to have her move it out of his grasp.

"It's expensive stuff." Nami told him, only to be responded to with a confused expression on the swordsman's face. "You'll just waste it, sit down on the bench and I'll do it."

Realizing what she was saying, Zoro responded the only way he knew how. "Hell no…!" The last thing he was going to do was let her wash the marker off of him like he was some child. "I'll just take my chances with the soap and water."

As Nami saw him moving towards the ladder again, she found herself becoming offended that he didn't trust her enough to do something as simple as this. "Now you wait just a damn minute, baka!" She yelled at him, grabbing the back of his coat to stop him from leaving, before swinging him towards the bench. "We got that drinking competition to go to later tonight, and I'll be damned if I have to go out in public with you looking like that. Now sit your dumb ass down, and just let me help you!"

Before he realized what was happening; Zoro found himself falling to sit down on the bench. It never ceased to amaze him how strong the woman could be when she was mad. He tried to stand back up in protest, but was quickly shoved back down by her free hand. To keep him in place, she then straddled herself over his lap facing him.

As he sat there under her weight, he quickly started to weigh the pros and the cons of the situation he found himself in: Though there were several others; the major con was the feeling of being completely emasculated by her treating him as if he was a child. While the pros were the fact that he didn't want to be seen in public in his current state either, and he couldn't help but slightly enjoy the feeling of the mikan-head's body being so close to his. With a defeated sigh; he closed his eye and let Nami start to work on removing the marker from his face.

Nami took the cotton cloth and got it slightly damp with the remover before setting it down on the bench beside them. She then took hold of Zoro's chin lightly with her free hand and pressed the cloth to his face right below his now closed good eye to remove the okama makeup first. The marker was coming off easier than Nami had expected it to, but the more surprising part was the lack of complaint from the swordsman.

After several minutes of removing the colors, she momentarily stopped to see if he was doing ok. She was genuinely surprised to find that he had fallen asleep. As she continued working, she couldn't help but think about how far they had all come as a crew. She thought back to two years ago when she had first met the man under her, and how despite the fact that he could sleep anywhere, the old Zoro would have never let his guard down long enough for Luffy to have got this carried away, or for him to have fallen asleep with them both in the positions they were in.

She smiled to herself as she lifted his chin to observe her handy work, and look at his now clean face. Her thumb brushed over his lips as she turned his head to each side to make sure she hadn't missed anything. As her thumb lingered on his lips; she noticed how soft that they actually were. Before she realized what she was doing; she had licked her own lips to wet them as she tilted her head sideways and started to lean forward towards his. She was only centimeters away. She could feel the heat from his steady breathing leaving his mouth against her own lips. She liked her lips once again, before attempting to make the final push forward and take advantage of those soft lips in their vulnerable state… but before their lips made contact; she heard the door to the library creek open, snapping her attention back to reality as she watched Robin come into the room with her nose in the book that she had been reading.

After entering the room: Robin closed the book in her hand and looked up. She was genuinely surprised to see that Nami was straddling over Zoro's lap with their faces so close together, but her expression did not show it as she simply gave the younger woman her trademark smile before asking "Am I interrupting something?"

Nami's face turned a slight shade of pink as she realized what she had almost done without even thinking about it. "No… I was just…" Nami started, trying to piece together a complete sentence. "Zoro needed my ink remover to get Luffy's artwork off of him. And since it's expensive; I convinced him to let me do it so he didn't waste it."

"Oh… I see…" Robin responded while walking over to a bookshelf, placing the book that was in her hand on the shelf before grabbing another. "Well, I just came in to get another book. Sorry for interrupting you. I'll let you get back to work then."

Nami watched Robin starting to leave, but felt she had to say something else, fearing the older woman was suspicious that something else was going on. "I actually just finished…" She started saying to the older woman. "See… His face is all clean now." Nami emphasized this by grabbing Zoro's head with both of her hands, and slightly pulling it towards Robin to show the archeologist that the face was indeed clean.

"Yes… And you did fine work Nami." Robin said towards the younger woman. "But how are you finished? His chest is still covered." Robin gave Nami a small wink before finally making her exit.

Once again alone in the room with the swordsman: Nami looked down at the man's chest to see the drawn on bikini was still intact. Not liking to leave things unfinished; Nami wetted the cloth again before resuming her work.

-0-0-0-0-

Zoro awoke several hours later alone in the library to find that all of the color had been removed. After a quick shower to get the alcohol smell off of his skin that the ink remover left; he joined Franky, Robin, Sanji, and Nami in the kitchen for dinner.

Luffy, Brook, Usopp, and Chopper had all left the ship just before lunch to go and sign up for yet another eating contest. They had yet to return, but seeing how the city still seemed to by standing, the other five crew members just assumed that they had found something interesting to do in the city, (or that Luffy was going for another record and the eating contest was still going).

After dinner: Zoro and Nami departed the ship and made their way across the city to the Galliano Bar and Casino, located just on the outskirts of the entertainment district. The Galliano was one of Las Yeager's oldest establishments. It was tiny in size and very run-down compared to the newer casinos, but it's rich history in Las Jaeger's seedier past made it the perfect place to hold a drinking contest.

After entering the establishment, Zoro and Nami signed up for the competition. The signup also consisted of a 2,000 beli entry fee for each person drinking, which Nami had no problem paying because she was certain they would win and take home the top prize of 500,000 beli. They were then showed towards their seats by an employee. Once knowing the location of their seats: Nami went to find the betting window and check their odds to place a sizeable bet on themselves.

While alone at the table, Zoro scanned the room to get an idea of who their competition was. There were sixteen teams in all including Nami and himself. The majority of the teams were groups of two men, all ranging from their late-teens to late-sixties. There was one pair of women; one being a small blond who had her hair in pigtails, and the other being a large dark-skinned woman with silver hair and scars all over her. He wasn't sure why; but the two women seemed familiar, and he had a feeling that they would be his and Nami's biggest competition of the night.

As Zoro was continuing to scan the room 'Thack' his analysis was interrupted by a small green marble colliding with the side of his head. As he stared at the marble now lying on the table; he could hear the sound of a woman's loud-high-pitched-laughter resonating over the entire room. Following the sound, Zoro's eye was met with the sight of the only other man/woman team. They were both in their early twenties.

The woman had long-flat-blond-hair with red streaks going through it, though he could only see one ear, her ears were full of multiple piercings, as well as one piercing in her nose, and three in her bottom lip. The most distinctive characteristic about the woman was her annoying laugh that slightly resembled that of a hyena.

The man, who had his arm wrapped around the woman's shoulder, was also blond. He had his hair styled into a fohawk with the tips of the hair dyed red, and a small goatee that was also dyed red; Zoro couldn't help but associate the man's appearance with that of a rooster's. The man was wearing a black leather jacket with small spikes sticking out of the shoulders of it. With his one free hand, he was rolling a marble around on the table with his index finger. When he noticed Zoro's glare; he stopped rolling the marble around to lift his hand, show Zoro his middle finger, and to stick his tongue out at the man, revealing a metal stud running through it.

The man's actions angered Zoro. He grabbed for one of his swords and was about to leave his table to teach the disrespectful punk a lesson, but was stopped by Nami's hand grabbing his shoulder and pushing him back down in the chair before taking a seat next to his left. "Just let it go for now." She said to the swordsman, having seen the whole incident from across the room. "We don't want to be kicked out of here before the contest even starts. Once you get some alcohol in you, you'll forget the guy is even there."

Zoro removed his hand from his sword and gave the navigator a simple grunt in response, but he didn't stop glaring at the man. He watched as the laughing chick leaned in and whispered something to the punk. The punk then gave a cocky smile, picked the marble off the table, and then flicked the marble towards Nami with his thumb…

But the marble never connected with the mikan-head. Instead; Zoro had reached up and caught it with his left hand, grinding the glass ball into dust, and letting the dust fall to the table in-front of them. Zoro's show of skill caused the laughing woman to quite her annoying laugh abruptly, while also causing the punk to drop his cocky smile. Satisfied with the results, Zoro leaned back in his chair and listened for to the rules of the competition while waiting for it to start.

The rules were as follows:

1: Each team would have two 16oz glasses of ale placed in-front of them.

2: They would have 30 seconds to complete both glasses of ale without spilling or spitting up any of the contents. If any of the ale was spilled or spit out, that team would automatically forfeit.

3: Either team member could drink the ale as long as both glasses were emptied within the time given.

4: If either of the team members passes-out or vomits, despite the other team member still finishing both glasses of ale, the team would automatically forfeit.

5: The last team capable of meeting all of the conditions wins.

With the rules explained, the competition began: The first round went by with no eliminations. The second round was a different story though; as one of the opposing teams had someone who tried to drink faster than he was capable of and ended up spitting out some of the ale getting his team eliminated. While another team spilled half a cup when a faster drinker tried to take the cup from his slower drinking partner, getting them eliminated as well.

By the third round it was already clear that Zoro and Nami were the favorites to win; they had managed to each chug down their glasses in less than 15 seconds each round, giving them more time between rounds to prepare themselves for the next. Zoro took this extra time to observe some of the other teams. His earlier assessment that the female duo would be their biggest competition was proving to be correct; the pigtailed-blond was holding her own, and finishing her drinks right around 20 seconds, all the while the dark-skinned woman was proving even more dangerous, by finishing hers in less than 10 seconds.

During the fourth round is where the competition took a huge turn of pace: The time limit was proving tougher than some had imagined as three teams were eliminated due to not being able to finish their drinks. While two other teams also suffered elimination because of spilling the ale; this was due to the alcohol already starting to impair some of the not so seasoned drinker's motor-skills, leaving only nine teams remaining.

The nine teams lasted through both the fifth and the sixth rounds without elimination. But the seventh round seemed to be uncharacteristically unlucky for four more of the teams; as they could no longer keep up the pace and were eliminated, bringing the teams down to five.

During his short break between round seven and eight: Zoro took a moment to see who was still left. As Zoro suspected; the female duo was still hanging in strong, and the two reaming male teams didn't seem to be lightweight drinkers either. To Zoro's surprise; the punk and the laughing girl were still in it as well, but he could tell that the alcohol was starting to take its effect on them both. He figured that it wouldn't be long before they were eliminated as well.

But after the eighth round started, things got a little weird. As Zoro picked up his mug and chugged down his ale; he heard the sound of glass breaking, nearly causing him to spit out some of the liquid, but he maintained his composure and finished his drink completely, saving Nami and himself from elimination.

As the swordsman scanned the room to figure out what had happened; he discovered that a member of one of the male teams mug had shattered while he was trying to drink from it, resulting in the ale spilling onto the table in front of him and his teammate, and eliminating them from the competition. "That's bull-shit!" The man screamed at the judges, visibly angry that he was being eliminated. "The damn mug broke! How was that my fault!"

"The rules are all of the ale must be drunk." The judge explained to the contestant. "If any is spilt; than the contestants of that team are automatically eliminated from the contest. I don't know how your mug broke, but you failed to drink all of the ale, the rule still stands."

As the remaining participants watched the seen unfold, taking the distraction as a blessing so they could catch their breaths, Zoro couldn't help but feel something was amiss. He scanned the area around where the mug had broken trying to see if anything was out of place. That's when he noticed; mixed in the glass and liquid lying on the floor was a small blue orb, it was a marble. His attention was soon grabbed by the loud-high-pitched sound of the hyena girl laughing. He turned his attention on to the annoying woman and her partner, to see that the blond punk had a guilty sneer plastered across his face. Zoro knew that he was going to have to keep his guard up so that the same thing didn't happen to either Nami or himself as well.

The ninth round started and the same thing happened again. Zoro watched as the punk, with one hand gripping his mug and tilting it to his face, flicked another red marble with his free hand at the remaining male team. The marble collided with one mug but did not break it; it instead ricocheted off the first mug hitting the holder's teammate, and making the teammate spit out the ale that was currently in his mouth. Zoro had to admit that the punk had decent skills with projectiles, but that trick wouldn't work on him again.

As the two men stood from their seats to leave the contest area; one of the men decided he wasn't leaving without a few choice words. "You think that I didn't see what you did you little punk? This is bull-shit!" The man screamed, pointing a threatening finger at the blond punk, and his female partner who was laughing away. "I demand that this little shit gets disqualified, he cheated."

"He didn't break any rules; we never said you couldn't interfere with other drinkers." One of the judges said simply with a shrug of the shoulders.

"Ok… I see how it is." The angry man said, nodding that he understood. "That's ok. Because you're still gonna get yours Cocky Roo." After his statement; the angry man and his contest partner left the building all together, while the punk just continued to smile cockily and his female partner continued to laugh away.

After watching the scene unfold and knowing now that the judges allowed cheating; Zoro looked over at the female team, making eye contact with the larger woman. He could tell that she was a fellow warrior and a person that prided herself on a good honest challenge, and knowing what the swordsman was trying to convey with simple eye contact, the woman nodded to him before turning her gaze and cracking her knuckles towards the troublesome duo. Zoro and Nami also turned their attention onto the duo, giving them their most convincing 'try that shit with us and we'll kill you looks.'

Feeling the dangerous atmosphere in the room; laughing completely stopped from the blond woman, while the punk put up his hands in defeat to show that he wouldn't use the low trick on either of the two remaining teams. To further emphasize his point; the rooster looking male also lifted an empty canvas bag to show them it was out of marbles. "Ok… ok… I get it. No reason to be hostile. I'll behave." He said to neither team in particular.

Once the small interruption was settled, the judges placed the next round of mugs on the three remaining tables and let the competition continue. Zoro knew that this is where the real contest would begin, as he eyed the female duo and prepared himself for the battle to come.

Round after round started to pour as the three teams increased their pace of drinking to try and show their dominance. Zoro continued to eye the dark-skinned woman as she pounded each mug back with great skill. As far as Zoro was concerned, there were no other competitors left besides the large woman, himself, and Nami.

After the fifteenth round, Nami directed the swordsman's attention towards the other male/female duo. "Look at that." The navigator said pointing over at the man and woman. "They're about done."

As Zoro watched the two, he could tell that Nami was right. Both the rooster punk, and the laughing girl were starting to sway heavily in their seats, and the woman was starting to have problems keeping her eyes open.

"Hey Billie-Jean…" The male said to his partner, snapping his thumb four times in front of her face to keep her eyes open, as the next round was put on all the tables. "You gotta hang in there for a couple more rounds."

Zoro smirked to himself, satisfied that the obnoxious duo would be gone soon, so that there wouldn't be any more distractions for the real competitors. He turned his gaze back to the dark skinned woman, giving her a challenging look. The woman gave him a confident smile and a silent nod to show she accepted.

When the judges signaled that the timing had started for the sixteenth round. Zoro quickly chugged down his glass, and slammed it on the table in less than five seconds, satisfied that he had beat the larger woman's finish time for the first time that night. But his satisfaction was soon dropped when the woman finished her mug, and then grabbed her partner's mug, chugging it down as well in less than fifteen seconds.

"Angel, that ale was mine." The smaller of the two women protested.

"Yosh! Two mugs in less than fifteen seconds!" The scarred woman exclaimed happily. "A new personal best! WhooHoo!"

Zoro hung his head in defeat. He shook his head from side to side, wondering how that woman could drink so much. But as he was shaking his head, he noticed he got a little dizzy. He straightened back upright and a confused look over took his features. '_Why am I getting dizzy? I wasn't drunk a second ago._' He thought to himself as he was contemplating what was going on.

He noticed a strange taste in his mouth as he started to look around the room. His vision was starting to blur as he watched the judges start to bring out the next round. Something was wrong, and he knew it. Suddenly everyone's attention went to the female duo as the sound of the larger woman falling to the floor silenced the room.

"Angel… Angel what's wrong?" The smaller woman spoke aloud as she kneeled on the floor next to her friend. "You never get drunk this fast, what's happening." But the larger woman didn't respond, instead all that could be heard from her was her loud snoring resonating throughout the room.

"Angel has fallen asleep. Therefor Angel and Daisy's team forfeit." One of the judges explained. "The remaining teams are Roronoa Zoro and Nami, and Cocky Roo and Billie-Jean."

Zoro heard two more snaps of the thumb from Cocky Roo's direction, drawing his attention towards the man, only to be met by a familiar guilty sneer. Through blurred vision, Zoro looked down at the mug of ale in front of him, to see something white slowly dissolving in his mug. He quickly looked over at Nami's, barely having enough time to see something similar in hers before the next round started. '_Shit, that rooster bastard drugged us._' He thought to himself as panic started to take over his features as he watched Nami lift her mug to her lips to try and chug the contents down. '_What his game? Is he trying to knock us out so he can turn us in and collect our bounties?_'

Without giving it anymore rational thought, Zoro swatted the mug out of Nami's hand, spilling the rest of the contents onto the table in front of them. "What the hell are you doing Zoro?" Nami screamed at the swordsman, furious with him that he just lost them the competition.

"We're leaving, now." Zoro demanded as he went into his protective mode, grabbing her by her wrist and pulling her to her feet before making their way to exit the building.

Once outside: Zoro continued to drag her through the streets and away from the building. "What's the big idea Zoro?" The navigator yelled at him. "We had it in the bag, all we had to do was out last those two and we would have…" Nami's scolding was cut short as her knees started to get shaky and she started to get dizzy, she couldn't even see Zoro still in front of her as her vision clouded over. "What's happening? Everything's getting fuzz…"

Zoro could feel Nami's body starting to go limp behind him through his grip around her wrist. He acted on impulse alone as he turned to face her and scooped her up in bridal fashion to prevent her from falling to the ground. '_We gotta get back to the ship. I have to get her somewhere safe before I pass out too._' His body started to move on its own as he just started running in any direction it would carry him along with his precious cargo. He couldn't be sure of where he was heading because by this time his vision was too blurry make out anything in front of him. He was only going on hope alone that he would somehow make it back to the ship, but it was not to be.

His knees started to buckle as everything started to get hazy. He felt around for anything to lean against, finding a tree as he slumped to the ground. He could tell from the lack of music and voices that he was no longer in the city. His last act of conscious decision was to lower himself and Nami to the ground safely with Nami still in his arms. Though he couldn't see her, he looked towards her to tell her "I'm sorry Nami, I failed…" before everything went completely black…

**End Chapter 6**

Author Notes and Apologies: Words can't even express how sorry I am for the late update. But not only have I not updated in over two months, but I also have not had a single day off in over ten weeks. And the worst part is that it doesn't seem like my lack of days off is going to change anytime soon. Seriously: The days just seem to be all blending into one, and my mind seems completely fried. So if anyone sees any glaring mistakes, please tell me, and I'll try to fix them.

As always: Thanks you all for taking the time to read, and please review. -fmdevil-


	7. Chapter 7

**Alright: No lame ass excuses this time, just a quick disclaimer.**

**I don't own the (in my opinion) greatest manga/anime of all time One Piece. If I did; Zoro and Nami would be trying to kill each other every chap/episode just so they could go and have hot makeup… Ahem… One Piece is owned by Oda**

…

…

**Dance the Night Away Chapter 7**

As Zoro started to slowly regain consciousness, the first thing he noticed was his pounding headache. He kept his eye shut and remained as motionless as possible as he tried to remember what had transpired the night before. He remembered the end of the drinking contest, and him dragging Nami through the streets before she lost consciousness. He could somewhat recall trying to carry her back to the Sunny, but he never remembered making it there.

With his head still pounding and everything still hazy; he was hesitant on opening his eye, so he tried using his other senses to figure out where he was instead. He could feel grass underneath him, and judging by the moisture on the grass that was starting to seep through his clothes, it was just after sunrise. Against his back he could feel the hard and textured surface of a tree. There was a lack of the usual music and clatter coming from the always lively city of Las Jaeger, and he could hear the wind moving through nearby trees, confirming that he was not on the Sunny, but in the forest that surrounded the city. He could feel the cold morning wind biting through his sleeves, as his right arm lay over his swords, and his left lay loosely by his side. But despite the cold wind his chest was unusually warm and had weight on it. The most unusual thing though was that a warm wind was blowing from a different direction directly in his face: This warm wind had a smell to it that reminded him of bad dog breath, and he could have sworn that he could hear '_…a growl?_'

As Zoro finally opened his eye, and his vision cleared, he was met with the sight of extremely large white teeth, the majority of the teeth were each bigger than his hand but the longest ones were as big as his entire forearm, and the teeth were titled down towards him. He slightly turned his head to the side to get a better look at the owner of the teeth to see a very large black and grey timber wolf; the wolf stood at least 8' (243 cm) tall even on all fours, and had to have weighed at least 1200lbs (545kgs). Zoro could tell that the beast was not happy about him being in the wolf's territory, and it was contemplating whether or not to attach him.

Zoro remained motionless and went over his options in his head; '_Do I defend myself and cut this beast to pieces, or do I try and make a run for it and just get the hell out of the forest?_' After all; he didn't really blame the wolf, it was him who invaded the beast's territory, and he would probably do the same thing in the wolf's position. But as he sat there and pondered his options, he eventually lowered his eye to see what the weight on his chest was, and recognized the unmistakable orange locks that belonged to Straw-hat crew's navigator who was still sound asleep: She had her head buried into his chest, trying to steal any of his warmth that she could, with her arms wrapped around his waist inside of his coat.

Not knowing if he could successfully escape from the beast while carrying Nami at the same time; realization sunk in and Zoro's protective instincts started to take over. He would cut anything that threatened any of his nakama, especially when it concerned this particular woman, and wouldn't hesitate to kill the wolf, regardless of whether he had invaded the beast's home or not. With his right hand Zoro gripped the sheath of Sandai Kitetsu, and with his left, he slowly reached over Nami's sleeping form and grabbed the sword's hilt. Ready to unsheathe the blade at any moment that he needed; Zoro narrowed his eye, and without saying a word, gave the large animal an intimidating stare which was his way of telling the beast '_Back off or I'll kill you._'

Sensing the overwhelming killing intent from the man in front of it; the wolf's survival instincts told it that this was a fight that it shouldn't pick, and that it should just let these trespassers be. With one last huff of air from the wolf's nose towards Zoro's face, the large beast then turned away and slowly walked off deeper into the forest.

Zoro waited for the wolf to be completely out of sight before he started to relax. He removed his left hand from Sandai Kitetsu, but instead of letting the hand rest at his side, he placed it on the small of Nami's back. The woman made a slight movement from the contact of his cool hand being placed on her warm skin, but showed no signs of waking. Zoro let out a small sigh as he pondered on whether to wake the young woman or not. She would be undoubtedly angry with him that he somehow managed to drag them all the way into the forest, and he wasn't sure if he was ready to receive the blunt of that anger with his head already pounding as is, but from the way her body was shivering from the cold morning air, he knew it would be unhealthy for her to continue to be exposed to the elements.

Trying to give her at least a little more comfort; Zoro put his other arm around her as well, and pulled her in closer to his body so she could share his heat. '_Maybe I should of just killed that damn thing, and made a blanket out of its' fur?_' He thought to himself, believing that the best solution to every problem is to cut something. '_Either way; I can't keep postponing the inevitable, I have to wake her._' But just as he thought he found his resolve, he looked down at her again, and decided she looked too comfortable and peaceful to wake, and besides; he'd be lying if he said he wasn't enjoying it just a little bit. '_Maybe in five more minutes._'

But it wouldn't be five minutes before Nami started to stir. Zoro looked down and watched her with a disappointed look on his face as he realized she was starting to come to. She looked up at him with her arms still around him, and his around her, before she spoke "Eh? Another dream?" She asked aloud, with a confused-groggy look on her face. "Ah well… this one doesn't seem so bad. At least this one isn't kinky." She then let her head fall back to his chest and again closed her eyes.

Zoro sat perfectly still, holding his breath, as he was trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. '_Did she just say what I think she said?_' He thought to himself as his mouth started to slowly gape open. '_She's been having dreams about me? And some of them are kinky?_' Zoro remained frozen in place from shock; he didn't know how to proceed from there. Luckily for him the sound of Nami's pained voice broke the awkward silence.

"Argh…" She let out quietly. "Why is my head pounding so badly even in a dream?"

"Ahem…" Zoro coughed out, clearing his throat to get the woman's attention.

Nami's eyes snapped open as she looked up at him in realization that she was not dreaming. Zoro noticed the look of utter horror in her eyes as she quickly un-wrapped her arms from around his waist and placed her hands on his chest to push off of it and put some distance between the two of them.

As she pushed off of his chest; the force caused his body to slightly fall backwards and his head to collide with the tree behind him with a sickening thud, as she quickly scurried off of him and onto the ground.

"Argh…!" Zoro said painfully as he reached both hands up to grab the back of his head to try and suppress the pain. "Dammit witch! Just cause you're embarrassed doesn't mean you have to overreact and get violent."

"I… I'm not embarrassed you asshole." Nami retorted as she crossed her arms over her chest and averted her eyes from him. Trying to get the attention off of herself, she asked aloud "Where are we? What the hell happened last night?"

Zoro looked at her with an angry glare, still mad about her slamming his head into the tree, but allowed her to change the subject; after all, he didn't really want to talk about the 'dream comment' either. So he answered her question. "We're in the forest surrounding the city. I must have dragged us out here before I passed out." And then he asked a question of his own. "You don't remember anything?"

A confused-pained look came over Nami's face as she tried to recall the previous night. "The last thing I remember is we were in that drinking contest when…" The navigator's facial features switched from confused to angry as her final memories of the previous night cleared in her mind, and she glared at the man sitting near her. "When you knocked the glass out of my hand and cost us the damn competition, you baka!"

Nami quickly crossed back over to the swordsman and started to unleash a fury of wild punches at him to let him know of her frustrations. "Do you know how much money you cost me?!" She screamed at him in between furious strikes.

Zoro put his hands up to protect himself from the mikan-head's onslaught. "Oi… did you forget about the part where we were drugged, witch?!" He screamed back at her.

"So what?" Nami then quit swinging her wild punches at him and wrapped her hands around his throat instead. "You saw those two. They were ready to pass out at any second. Maybe we could have out lasted them."

Reaching up and grabbing her wrists to wrench her hands off his throat before he passed out "I was more… concerned about… getting us out of there before we passed out so that they couldn't drag us into the local bounty office and collect on our heads." The first mate said through large breaths of air, as the color started to regain in his face.

Nami stopped her violent outburst to look at her nakama's serious expression. The look she gave him was one mixed with both sympathy and pity. '_So he was just worried about our wellbeing, but still…_' "You really are a baka sometimes." She finished her thought aloud to only get a confused look from Zoro in response. "This is a safe haven island. There isn't even a bounty office on the entire island." She said to clarify as she brought her hand to rub the bridge of her nose with her fingers. "Weren't you even listening to me and Robin when we first got here?"

A light pink hue formed on Zoro's face as he realized she was right. '_How could I have forgotten that_?' He inwardly scolded himself.

Nami watched him carefully as Zoro's gaze fell down to the ground in defeat. '_I guess it's the concern that counts though._' She thought to herself as a small smile formed on her lips.

Deciding that they weren't going to get anywhere by sitting there and arguing all day; Nami was the first to stand up. After wiping the dirt from the knees of her jeans, she then offered Zoro her hand to help him stand. "Come on baka, we better get back to the ship. We still gotta get ready for the dance contest tonight."

The green-haired man simply nodded his head in agreement before taking her hand to get to his own feet. He then started to move towards what he thought was the direction the Sunny was in before he felt a tug on his hand. "You're heading west. The city is east of the forest." The navigator spoke to grab his attention, before she started to drag him off in the right direction without ever letting go of his hand. "It's probably a good thing you dragged me out here with you. Otherwise you'd be lost for days without me." She said with a happy chirp to her voice.

"I don't get lost." He vocally protested, but continued to let her drag him anyway.

They continued walking for several minutes in a comfortable silence, only listening to the sounds of the city of Las Jaeger getting slowly closer with each footstep. Zoro found it strange that he couldn't help but enjoy the feel of her hand holding his. Though her hand was much smaller, and her grip was lighter, it was strangely forceful, and it just seemed to fit perfectly into his. He didn't even realize his own actions when he slightly increased his grip on her hand to make sure it was firmly in place.

Feeling his grip tighten; Nami realized that they were actually still holding hands, and a small blush formed on her cheeks. But not wanting to let go of his hand, or think about it for that matter, the mikan-head decided to strike up a conversation to take her mind off it.

"There's been something bugging me for a little bit now." Nami started to speak, only getting a small grunt from Zoro to confirm he was listening. "How did the drugs get in our drinks in the first place? Were the judges in on it?"

Zoro replayed the final moments of the previous night in his head, rewinding them: The moment where he was dragging Nami through the streets, the moment where he saw the white substance dissolving into their glasses, the sound of two snaps of the thumb, the moment where the dark-skinned-woman passed out after drinking those two glasses, the off-taste of that last glass of ale, the sound of the punk snapping his fingers in front of his annoying girlfriend… '_How many times did he snap his fingers?_' Zoro pondered to himself as he was recalling the competition. "Argh… four times. How could I have not noticed?" He grumbled aloud.

"What are you mumbling about back there?" Nami asked the swordsman.

"I don't think the judges were in on it." Zoro started explaining. "The rooster bastard; he snapped his fingers in front of the laughing bitch four times before the round with the first drugged glasses. Once for each of ours, once for the amazon chick, and once for the pigtail chick."

"But Daisy didn't pass out." Nami stated as she remembered when he was talking about.

"That's because the amazon chick drank her mug too. That's why she probably went down first." Zoro continued. "The rooster punk was flicking marbles earlier that night. He probably specializes in small projectiles. I'm sure he was flicking the drugs into all of our glasses when he was snapping his fingers. I just didn't notice because I was getting too involved into the contest. I underestimated the little prick."

Nami could hear the disappointment in Zoro's voice. She knew that he felt like he failed. She slightly squeezed his hand to reassure him that he hadn't before abruptly stopping and turning to him. "We'll get them back for this Zoro, even if we have to stay on this island for a few extra days just to track them down and make them regret ever messing with us, and most importantly; my money." The navigator stated confidently with a huge smile on her face. "Now quit walking so slow, and pick up the pace. We got a dance contest to win tonight."

Zoro nodded his head in agreement and let Nami lead the way. As he followed closely behind her, with their hands still intertwined, he couldn't help but notice the confidence in her step. She was right; no one messes with any of the straw-hats and gets away with it, especially Cat Burglar Nami and her money.

-0-0-0-0-

Near the port of Las Jaeger; Sanji was already having a great day. He had woken up early so he could get to the market right before dawn; he was planning on making a very special breakfast for his two lovely ladies and needed only the freshest ingredients, but he quickly lost track of time as several of the female vendors recognized him and started hounding him for his autograph/picture/recipes/etc…

It was now nearing 9-am and he realized that the barbaric men on the ship were most likely already complaining about the lack of food, and his poor angels were probably suffering greatly without his presence, but he just couldn't find it in himself to rush back to the ship as he slowly made his way back towards the docks with a little extra lift in his steps to compliment his mood. He felt like he was floating on air, as he slowly smoked his cigarette, and remembered all of the lovely women that he had just met. But his great mood would quickly change.

As he neared the port where the Sunny was docked; he saw a familiar head of bright orange hair in the distance. He barely noticed that his precious Nami-swan seemed to be arguing with someone as he tried to wave her down and get her attention. That was until he noticed her dragging a certain marimo-bastard by the hand towards the docks. His heart sunk a little as he added a couple of extra steps in his walk to try and catch up and see what was going on.

They seemed to be arguing about what direction the ship was in, or about the damn-shitty-swordsman not wanting to wear something that was in the shopping bags he was holding in his free-hand. Fury started to build in the blond man as he was all but running to catch up to them and yell at the marimo for arguing with 'his' precious Nami-swan.

'_Who the hell does that bastard think he is?_' Sanji started to think to himself, as he watched them disappear on to the Sunny from the end of the docks. '_He should be on his knees thanking her that she is a kind enough person to show him the way back to the ship, let alone hold his hand while doing so. If only Nami-san would hold my hand like that even for a moment, I could die a happy man. But instead that damn…_'

"Zoro-sama…!" A feminine voice called out from behind Sanji, breaking his concentration. "Nami-sama, wait up, I have your pictures!"

The cook turned around to get a glimpse of the owner of the angelic-voice who was trying to hale his nakama; when his eyes were met by a young brown-haired woman who was scantily clad in a black-studded-leather-teddy which barely covered her private areas running down the docks towards him. The sight caused him to get a large nose bleed and pass out from the shock…

"Excuse me sir, are you ok?" …As Sanji started to come to; he could hear the sound of a woman's voice. As he opened his eyes; he saw the woman from earlier leaning over him and waving a large vanilla envelope in front of his face to fan him some air.

"Am I dead?" He asked the woman, only to get a confused look in response. "Is this heaven? Are you an angel?" He then took a moment to look over her attire once again before continuing his questions. "Or is this hell? And you are a demon that has come to punish me for all my sins?" Sanji quickly shot upwards, getting on one knee in front of the woman, and grabbing her free hand with both of his in the process. "If you are a demon, I would not mind, as long as you are the one to punish me. OH PLEASE, MY MISTRESS, MAKE ME YOUR ETERNAL SLAVE OF LOVE, PUNISH ME TO YOUR HEARTS CONTENT!"

The confused woman quickly retracted her hand back from the cook's grasp, and waved it in front of her in a dismissive matter. "You got it all wrong. You're not dead." The woman quickly explained. "My name is Candy; I own a small clothing store in the city."

"Oh… I see. Sorry about my confusion." Sanji apologized to Candy. "But why are you wearing such fantastic clothing in public?" He asked with a heart forming in his one visible eye.

"I wear stuff like this every day." Candy explained as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "By the way… Are you Black Leg Sanji from the Straw-hat crew?"

"Ah… So you've heard of me?" Sanji said with a charming smile on his face. "You must have been hearing stories about the handsome Chef-King. Have you come to ask for my autograph, or to see if I would give you some recipes?"

"No, not at all." Candy dismissed him quickly, causing a black cloud to form over Sanji's head. "I only eat instant food. I know who you are because after Zoro-sama, Nami-sama, and Robin-sama came into my shop I did a little research on your crew. I was actually just on my way over here to deliver some pictures I had developed for them when I saw Zoro-sama, and Nami-sama. But then you fainted and I just couldn't leave you lying on the docks."

"And for that, I am in your debt, my-lady." Sanji said with a slight bow, as the black cloud over his head disappeared. "Would you allow me to repay the favor by letting me cook dinner for you?"

"No… That's ok. I'm actually a really busy person, and that's why I only eat instant food." She said dismissing his kindness again, causing another black cloud to form over his head. "But if you would make sure the three of them get these pictures you'd make me very happy?" She finished with a warming-bright smile.

"Anything for such a beautiful lady, it would be my pleasure." Sanji answered while taking the envelope from Candy.

"Thank you so much Sanji-sama." Candy said to the chef before turning around to leave. "Oh… and if you have time before you leave, maybe you can come by my shop? Bye Sanji-sama!" She yelled out over her shoulder, giving him a friendly wave, as she made her way back towards the city.

"Goodbye Candy-Fwawn! It was so nice meeting you!" The cook exclaimed happily, while watching her leaving form. Once she was out of sight; Sanji's attention went to the envelope in his hand. He couldn't help but feel curious as to what the pictures might be of. "She said that both Robin-chan and Nami-san were in her shop. Maybe the pictures are a gift for me?" He said aloud to himself. "I know I shouldn't look, but the thought of my two lovely angels having pictures taken just for me is too much to bear. Please forgive me my angels."

Sanji quickly opened the envelope and reached in to retrieve the pictures. He closed his eyes and fought with himself (but only for a second) on whether or not to look. What he saw was picture after picture of his two female nakama posing proactively in leather S & M gear, causing a small trail of blood to slowly leave his nose, and a big blissful smile to come across his face.

But as he flipped through the pictures; he came across a few 'certain' pictures that would cause his smile to fade, and a look of pure anger and fury to replace it as his once heart shaped eye was covered by flames instead. "MARIMO…!" He screamed at the tops of his lungs before putting the pictures away, grabbing his sack of groceries that was sitting nearby, and making a mad dash towards the Sunny…

-0-0-0-0-

Aboard the 1000 Sunny: Nami and Zoro had just returned to the ship. They would have been back sooner, but much to Zoro's dismay, Nami insisted on stopping at a clothing store so they could pick out a few items for Zoro to wear at the competition later that evening.

Immediately after returning; the two went to the kitchen to see if there would be any leftovers from breakfast. Once through the kitchen door; they were met by the curious glances of Usopp, Chopper, Robin, Franky, and Brook who were all sitting around the dinning table, while Luffy had jumped up from his seat with an excited look on his face, only for the look to disappear once he saw who it was.

"Oh… It's only Zoro and Nami." The captain said disappointed as he dropped back down into his chair and laid his head on the table.

"What the hell is his problem?" The navigator asked irritated by Luffy's actions. "Is that anyway to treat your nakama?"

A small chuckle could be heard from Robin's direction. "Don't take it personally Nami-san; Luffy-san was expecting Sanji-san to be back. It seems he left early this morning without preparing breakfast, and hasn't returned yet." The archeologist calmly explained.

"Speaking of returning…" Franky spoke up, commanding everyone's attention. "Are you two just getting back from your contest there Nami-sis?"

"Yeah…" Nami answered with a sigh. "It's a long story." She sat down at the table to begin to explain the previous night's events, while Zoro tossed the shopping bags that he was carrying over on the couch and sat down beside her. But before she could begin everyone was interrupted by a familiar screaming voice…

"MARIMO…!"

…As they all turned their attentions towards the direction the angry scream came from: They could hear the sound of rapid footsteps approaching the kitchen, before the door finally burst open to reveal the crew's visibly irate cook.

Ignoring Sanji's foul mood; Luffy quickly jumped from his seat and launched himself towards his blond ship-mate. "Yosh! Sanji! Food!" The rubber-man yelled excitedly before receiving a well-placed foot to his face from said cook, resulting in the younger man being sent across the room to crash into the wall.

Without missing a beat; Sanji crossed the distance from the doorway over to the table to stand right beside his eternal rival, before smacking a vanilla envelope onto the table right in front of Zoro. "You have five seconds to explain yourself before I chop you up into little pieces, fry you, and serve your marimo-ass to that rubber-bastard for his breakfast." The cook said, deathly serious, while giving the swordsman his most threatening glare.

Despite not knowing what Sanji was referring to; Zoro quickly rose to his feet to be at eye level with the blond man. "I don't know what your problem is, but if you want to fight, curly-brow, I'll be more than happy to chop your ass into pieces." The first-mate said, not backing down from the other man, while putting one hand on the hilt of a sword.

While the argument was starting to unfold Usopp noticed the vanilla envelope that Sanji had slapped onto the table and had reached over and picked it up to view the contents inside. After his eyes fell onto the pictures that were inside, he couldn't stop his jaw from dropping and his eyes from nearly bulging out of his head, nor from falling over to the floor in a comical fashion.

"What ya got there, long-nose?" The shipwright asked after witnessing his nakama's odd behavior. Franky then crossed over to the sniper, and took the envelope out of his hand, before viewing the contents himself. "OW…! Now those are some SUPER hot pics!"

The cyborg's broadcast drew the attention of the rest of the male crew members (with the exception of Sanji and Zoro who were still arguing) as they gathered around the big man to view said pictures, even Usopp and Luffy had recovered from their 'injuries' to join in.

"Did Franky just say pictures?" Nami asked aloud to anyone listening. "What pictures?"

"Most likely the ones that I asked Candy-san to develop for me the other day." Robin answered from her seat with a very amused smile. Which caused Zoro to stop his argument with Sanji, and become frozen in place, as both his and Nami's faces paled in realization.

"Yohohoho… Truly fantastic." Brook chimed in. "These pictures are causing my heart to race, even though I have no heart to race. Yohohoho…"

"Wha… What are they wearing, and why do they look so mean?" Chopper asked while covering his eyes but still peaking anyway.

"We'll tell you when you get a bit older." Usopp told the reindeer while patting him on his hat.

While Franky flipped through the pictures; he came across the ones with Nami and Zoro in them. "OW… I didn't know you were in that kinda thing swords-bro." The cyborg stated as he turned the picture around to show Zoro.

"I was… I was just helping her zip up her boot." The first-mate quickly defended. "You're all taking that out of context."

"Yeah… Yeah…" Franky said dismissively before turning his attention towards the ship's archeologist. "Oi, Nico Robin, why didn't you tell me swords-bro went shopping with you and Nami-sis when you showed me this SUPER outfit…" Before he could finish his question, several hands appeared on his shoulders to cover his mouth, while Robin gave him a very serious stare.

The crew all looked in silence between the two to figure out what Franky was trying to say, and why Robin shut him up, but before anyone could inquire, Luffy broke the odd silence and brought everyone's attention back to Zoro with a question of his own.

"Hey Zoro… What does S & M mean?" The captain asked his first-mate as he showed the entire crew the cover of the stores catalog.

The cover was a picture of Nami in full dominatrix gear with her heal dug into Zoro's shoulder, as Zoro had both of his hands resting on Nami's thigh with both of them gazing directly into each other's eyes. There was also a big bold title on the catalog that read: **S & M In The New World, Straw-hat Pirate Style.**

"ENOUGH…!" Nami screamed out, bringing a complete halt to everything. "It's like Zoro said, you're all taking those pictures out of context! We had them taken so we could get a deal on some clothing, and I had asked Zoro to zip my boot up for me! We didn't even realize she was taking pictures of that! Now all of you give me all of those pictures and that catalog before I charge you each 10,000 beli per picture you looked at!"

The boys all quickly handed over the pictures and all arguing stopped. "Now… I was in the middle of explaining something before all of this distraction started." Nami continued. "Can I get back to that without any further interruption?"

The crew all shook their heads to show they understood as they all took their seats again. "But first… Sanji-kun, would you please start making breakfast while I explain, I'm starving?" Nami asked in her overly sweet voice.

"Of course Nami-san, anything for you." The cook answered with a polite bow, before giving the swordsman a quick death stare and telling him in a low threatening tone "This isn't over marimo." Zoro only gave a simple "Tch" in response as the chef walked towards the stove.

"You guys were wondering why we were just getting back right." Nami started, getting silent nods from some of the crew members. "It's because Zoro and I were drugged during the competition last night."

"Oh no… You were drugged?" Chopper asked starting to panic. "It wasn't some kind of poison was it? You're not gonna die are you? I don't want you guys to die. Quick, someone call a doctor."

"You're the doctor!" Nami screamed at the poor reindeer. "And we're not gonna die. It was just something to knock us out so we would lose the contest."

"Who did it?" Sanji quickly asked while coming out of the kitchen. "Do you know who the bastard was that would dare do something to my precious Nami-swan? And what were you doing this entire time you damn useless swordsman?"

"I was trying to win the contest ero-cook." Zoro defended as he stood to return said cook's hostility. "And I know who did it. It was that damn rooster-punk along with the laughing bitch."

"Oi, would you two knock it off?" Nami said interrupting the oncoming fight. "You can kill each other later. Right now we have to deal with this." Zoro and Sanji gave each other one last death stare before returning to what they were previously doing.

"Did Zoro say rooster-punk?" Usopp asked.

"Yeah… Why, do you know something?" Nami questioned the sniper.

"Well… yesterday at the eating contest something similar happened." Usopp started to explain. "Luffy passed out after his third of fourth plate."

"Wait… so you guys lost the eating contest too?" The navigator asked the coward to clarify.

"No…" Usopp assured while waving his hands in front of him in a dismissive matter. "Luffy still won. He kept eating despite falling asleep. But there was this guy who kinda of resembled a rooster in a leather jacket complaining that Luffy should be disqualified for falling asleep. But the judges told him there was no rule against sleep eating, the guy was really mad. I think his name was…"

"Cocky Roo…" Robin interrupted grabbing everyone's attention. "…Otherwise known as the Rooster-Punk. His bounty was 1,000,000 beli before he came to the city of Las Jaeger just over a year ago. Cocky Roo is actually an alias: His real name is Caleb Oreville, a low level con-man who specializes in small projectiles. His companion is known as Laughing-Girl Billie-Jean: she has no bounty, and the only information I have on her is that she was born here in Las Jaeger."

"Hahahaha…!" Sanji bellowed out from over by the stoves. "You mean to tell me that the shitty-swordsman got one upped by a low level punk named Oreville? Hahahaha…!"

"Oi! You wanna come over here and say that to my face shit-cook?" Zoro exclaimed as he got up from his chair and prepared to fight his rival.

"I SAID KNOCK IT OFF!" Nami screamed as she stood up and delivered a closed fist to the top of Zoro's head, causing the man to face plant into the hard wood floor.

"Low level or not…" Luffy spoke from his seat. The entire crew looked at him, noticing his very serious demeanor. "This guy messed with my crew. I say we find him and kick his ass."

"Now… Now… senchou-san, let's not be too hasty." Robin spoke again. "Maybe we should beat him at his own game?"

"What do ya mean Robin?" Usopp asked. "And how do you know so much about this guy anyway?"

"You'd be surprised what kind of information the casinos have on file at their disposal." The archeologist answered with a smile. "I was doing research about a contest that happens later tonight when I came across their names. It seems they have won the last three of these contests, albeit under questionable circumstances, but they are favored to win again tonight."

"What contest is that Robin?" This time it was Chopper who asked.

"The freestyle dance competition." Robin answered, causing the entire crew to turn their heads towards Zoro and Nami with big smiles forming on their faces (except for Brook: He has no face to smile).

"You all know?" Nami asked, surprised by the crews reaction.

"Luffy let it slip last night after we dragged him back to the ship." Usopp confirmed.

"Then long-nose wouldn't stop making up stories about it until we threatened to smother him." Franky continued.

"Those were only stories? But you told me they were all true Usopp." –Chopper.

"Wait… How did Luffy know?" Nami asked, directing her attention towards her captain.

"I snuck out to get a midnight snack two nights ago when I saw movement in the crows-nest. So I climbed on top of the bath house and watched you guys for a while." Luffy answered her with his trademark smile.

Nami looked at Zoro to see if he was surprised by all of this information. He simply shook his head and shrugged his shoulders before saying "We were gonna have to tell them eventually. This just makes it easier." Realizing he was right, the navigator just lowered her mikan-head in defeat.

"So…" Usopp spoke up to grab Nami's attention. "You guys are ready right?"

Nami let out a small sigh before answering. "We've got a routine planned, but our timing is a little off. There just seems to be missing something. Neither of us can figure it out. We were hoping that we could come up with something before the competition tonight."

Luffy suddenly started waving his hand in the air frantically to get his nakama's attention. "I know what you guys are missing."

Zoro gave his captain a stern glare before speaking. "Luffy, if you say chopsticks I'm going to find every chopstick on this whole island just to shove them down your throat."

His first-mate's statement caused him to lose the excited look on his face and to slump back down into his chair. "But I think it would be a great idea." Luffy said with a visible pout.

"If I may make a suggestion?" Brook spoke to draw everyone's attention. "Maybe what you are missing is an original score." Zoro and Nami both cocked their heads to the side to show that he had confused them, but they were listening. "An original piece of music that is designed specifically for your routine. I would be happy to compose some for you. Just allow me to watch your routine and I'm sure I can come up with something appropriate."

The expression on Nami's face lifted and her face brightened. "You know what? That might work." She spoke confidently. "Alright… After breakfast Brook will come up to the crows-nest with Zoro and me, and will figure out some music for our routine, and then everything should be perfect."

The entire crew nodded their heads in agreement (besides Luffy who was still pouting) before Nami spoke again. "And then we'll show that damn rooster and his laughing bitch that they messed with the wrong crew."

"I still think the chopsticks would have been a great idea." The captain said still depressed.

"Oi, here's your shitty food." Sanji stated as he put the huge platter of breakfast meats on the table.

"Yosh! Food!" And as simple as that, Luffy's depression completely disappeared.

-0-0-0-0-

Several hours later: Most of the crew had all assembled on deck to depart for the city, as they eagerly awaited the arrival of their two nakama that would be participating in the night's event.

Nami was the first to arrive. The crew's expression widened with pleasant surprise as they saw what she had chosen to wear. She was wearing a long red V-neck halter Salsa dress, with a ruched-waistband, and a high wrapped slit on the side.

"You look lovely Nami-san." Robin said to the younger woman.

"Thank you Robin." Nami responded to the older woman before looking around the deck. "Where's Zoro?"

"Swords-bro is still in the men's quarters complaining about the outfit that you told him to wear." Franky answered the navigator while pointing a large thumb in the direction of the men's quarters. "Cook-bro went to go get him."

As if on cue, the door to the men's quarters swung open and Sanji's voice could be heard from the room scolding the first-mate. "Quit your whining and get your ass out there you shitty-marimo!"

"Hell no! I'm not wearing this. It looks like something Mihawk would wear." Zoro's protests could be heard.

"You should just be grateful that Nami-swan wants you to look your best. Now get moving. If you keep Nami-swan waiting I swear I'll kick your ass all the way back to East Blue."

The crew sat and watched as Zoro came flying out of the door after being pushed by Sanji. There were mixed reactions from the crew at the outfit that Nami had chosen for him. He was wearing a pair of black pants, his red sash tied around his waist, and a white ruffled shirt with an open collar. The look on his face showed that he was obviously displeased with the navigator's choice of attire for him.

"You look quite dashing Zoro-san." Brook spoke to try and reassure his fellow swordsman. "It suits you quite well."

"Whatever." Zoro said with a scoff. "Can we just get this over with?"

"Well, why haven't we left yet?" Usopp asked the crew who were still oddly standing around on the deck. "Are we missing something?"

"Oh… I know." Chopper squealed excitedly. "Captain's orders."

All of the Straw-hat's tuned their attention onto their young captain, awaiting his orders. "Yosh!" Luffy screamed out. "Let's go win that dance contest, and get payback from that damn Rooster-Punk!" The crew all gave their silent signs of approval as they made their way off the 1000 Sunny and towards the city of Las Jaeger.

**Chapter 7 End**

…

…

**Author Notes: Originally this chapter was going to have the dance competition included, but I noticed that it was already becoming a long chapter only about halfway through, so I decided that I would split it up and the dance competition is next time. This honestly works out better for me, because I still have to do some research for it.**

**And again: I know nothing about fashion, so I had to look up information on what Nami was wearing. If ya want a better idea: Just google image Long Salsa dresses, and it is like the very first image that pops up.**

**As always: Thanks for reading, and please review –fmdevil-**


	8. Chapter 8

Author Note: I know I said I'd do this at the end of the chapter, but I decided I'd make an exception.

These are the songs that inspired the dance scenes in this chapter: **Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell" **for Cocky Roo and Billie-Jean's performance, and **Sevendust's "Prayer" **for Zoro and Nami's performance. **Sevendust **is also my favorite band by the way. If you're not familiar with their music, then shame on you ;p

Zoro and Nami are not doing it like rabbits in every chapter of the manga: therefor I still don't own One Piece.

…

…

**Dance the Night Away Chapter 8**

The crew made their way across the city towards the Bailey's Casino where the dance competition was being held. When they got their Nami and Zoro were surprised to find out that Robin had already taken the liberty of signing the duo up when she was there the previous day doing research; giving them more time to get settled before the contest began.

The rest of the crew was shown to their front row seats while Zoro and Nami had been shown to the backstage area. After arriving backstage; the two got comfortable on a nearby couch as they read a pamphlet on the rules of this competition.

Nami spoke the rules aloud to Zoro who was already starting to fall asleep. "Oi baka, don't fall asleep yet. Wait till I explain these rules." Nami started, only getting a grunt from the swordsman in response. "Last time we had to tell the judges what kinda dance we were performing, but this time it's a freestyle competition so that isn't required."

"That's really complicated stuff there." Zoro said to the navigator in a very sarcastic tone. "Glad I didn't fall asleep before you had the chance to explain it to me."

The mikan-head punched her dance partner in his arm in response to his sarcasm. "Shut up until I'm finished. The judging system is different this time. There are five judges instead of three. Plus all the stats for each team are in this pamphlet. Let's see…"

Nami quickly scanned the piece of paper to see where they were ranked and had mixed emotions on her findings. "There are five teams participating: Cocky Roo and Billie-Jean are ranked first with the casino paying 2 to 1 odds if they win, while we are ranked fourth and the casino is paying 16 to 1 if we win. It says that your dancing ability is the only reason we are even ranked fourth." Nami then proceeded to crumple the piece of paper in her hand. "Those bastards, how dare they underestimate me?"

Zoro was about to tell her that their ranking didn't matter to reassure her that they would do fine, but before he could the entire backstage area was filled with the sound of an annoying high pitched laughter.

"HEIHEIHEIHEI!" The blond covered in piercings let out as her and her partner came into the room. "Look who it is Roo."

All voices in the area became silent as the duo made their entrance. Billie-Jean was wearing a black swing dress with white polka dots, complete with petticoat and a white ribbon belt. While Cocky Roo was wearing a different black leather jacket than he had been wearing the night before; the jacket lacked the spikes that the previous one had, and had a fur lining that went up and over the shoulders of the jacket, he was also wearing a pair of tattered blue jeans to cover his legs.

"Well, well, well…" The Rooster-Punk started as he saw the two familiar faces sitting on the couch. "If it isn't the nobodies who couldn't hold their liquor last night. What, did ya come to lose to us again?" He finished, causing his female partner to burst into another fit of laughter.

The fiery navigator wasn't gonna take his comments sitting down; she quickly rose to her feet to be at eye level with the two. "Who the hell are you calling nobodies, Oreville?" Nami spat at the two, causing them both to lose their smug looks when the punk's real name was used. "The only reason you even won last night was because you had to result to dirty tricks. And you're the ones who are gonna lose tonight."

Getting a quick bode of confidence; Cocky Roo pointed a threatening finger towards Nami while retorting "Look here bitch…"

But he wasn't able to finish his sentence as Zoro was off the couch in an instant, grabbing the punk by his jacket with one hand, and pulling him only inches away from his own face. "If you dare speak to her like that again, you won't have to worry about winning this contest, because I'll break every little bone in your body, and then I'll cut you into tiny pieces before the contest even starts, understood?" Zoro threatened the man with a clear killing intent in his one good eye.

With his face covered in fear; Cocky Roo slowly nodded his head to the swordsman, showing that he understood. Zoro then threw the punk onto the floor, while never averting eye contact. Cocky Roo quickly stood up, grabbed Billie-Jean's hand, and all but dragged her to the other side of the room as fast as their feet would carry them.

"You know what?" Nami spoke, grabbing her crew-mate's attention. "Maybe it's a good thing that we are only ranked fourth." Zoro looked at her with a hint of confusion, waiting for her to explain. "That way when we beat that bastard and his annoying little girlfriend, it'll be that much more gratifying. Now I'm gonna go place a big bet on us to win, I'll be back in a little bit."

Zoro gave the woman a slight smirk and a quick nod before returning to the couch. As he watched her leave the area and head towards the gambling floors, he couldn't help but admire the confidence she had in her walk. Once she was completely out of sight, Zoro noticed the excitement that was building in him, and normally he would try and take a quick nap, but for once; he didn't feel tired at all.

-0-0-0-0-

After Nami had returned to the backstage area, an attendant of the contest had the five teams draw numbers from a box to figure out the order of which they would perform. The third-ranked team drew the first spot, while the fifth-ranked team drew the second, and the second-ranked drew the third spot. Cocky Roo and Billie-Jean would perform forth, while Zoro and Nami had drawn the fifth and final spot to perform for the night.

"We got pretty lucky." The navigator said to her dance partner. "This way we'll get to see everyone else's performance and have the most time to relax and prepare mentally." She finished, getting a simple "Hmph" from Zoro in confirmation.

As the competition began; the first performers of the night took their positions on the dance floor. Zoro and Nami were surprised at just how good each of the teams was. The first competitors scored a solid combined score of 37 setting the pace for the evening. The second team, which was the fifth-ranked team, came in right behind them with a score of 36. The thing that drew the two Straw-hat's attentions the most was that the fifth judge seemed to be hardest to please; he had gave both teams very cynical comments at the end of their performances, and hadn't scored either over a 6.

As the second-ranked team took the stage the atmosphere in the building changed; as the crowd grew silent with anticipation, it was obvious to Zoro and Nami that they were local favorites. And when they started their performance; the two could see why. They were good. In fact, they were great. Their performance combined traditional ballet with advanced acrobatics as well as a touch of hip-hop.

As Zoro and Nami watched the duo; their confidence started to waver as they had serious doubts of whether they could beat them. But as the female member of the performing team started to go into a complex twirl (similar to the ones Sanji does), a familiar snap of a thumb could be heard from somewhere in the backstage area, and a marble slid across the floor right under the twirling woman's foot, causing her to hit the ground hard.

The audience gasped at the scene in front of them, but the gasp was not the only sound that could be heard. The familiar sound of high pitched laughter could be heard coming from the backstage area, as the male performer helped his partner to her feet so they could try and finish their routine. But it was obvious that the damage was done, as the female performer's movements became very sluggish, showing signs that she had been hurt in the fall.

The music stopped, bringing an end to the duos routine, and the crowd gave a small unenthusiastic applause to show that they admired the woman's bravery for continuing. But her bravery wasn't enough. The judges ended up giving them a score of only 28 despite protests from the crowd. As the two made their way back to the backstage, the woman being helped by the man, they could only glare with detest at Cocky Roo and Billie-Jean, knowing the punk and his partner had a hand in their fall.

Zoro and Nami looked at each other very seriously before Nami spoke. "We can't let that happen to us Zoro. I put all of the ship's savings on us to win."

The swordsman gave a slight nod to show he understood… until her words actually registered. "You did what?" Zoro asked her through grit teeth, shock clearly visible on his face. "All of it?"

"All of the ship's savings. Not my money of course." The navigator said while nodding her head in confirmation.

"That doesn't add any pressure or anything." Zoro grumbled in a low muffled tone.

"Consider it me doing you a favor. You work best under pressure." Nami told him with a smile on her face to show that she had confidence in him. "Now shut up. The Rooster-bastard and the Laughing-bitch are up next." The two then stood in silence and waited for the announcer to introduce the next contestants.

"The next duo is tonight's favorite to win." The announcer began as he took the center of the stage. "They have won the previous three competitions. They are the Rooster-Punk Cocky Roo, and Laughing-Girl Billie-Jean."

As the duo made their way onto the dance floor, they were met by the sounds of loud booing. It was obvious that they were actually quite notorious amongst the people of Las Jaeger. But the booing didn't shake their confidence, in fact they actually seemed to be feeding on it as Cocky Roo's face took on a very smug look, and Billie-Jean was laughing all the way to the dance floor.

The crowd eventually quieted down as the two took their places. They faced each other without making any physical contact before the music began. As the music started Cocky Roo threw his right leg back and his left hand out towards Billie-Jean, he held the pose while she started to sway her hips and knees as she lifted herself onto her toes. She then reached out with her left hand letting him take it in his right as they went into a Fast Swing Dance style.

Zoro and Nami watched for several moments. They would never admit it aloud, but the two were actually very good. It was clearly visible why they had won the previous competitions. But it was also obvious that this was not the first time the duo had performed this dance live. Their timing was perfect, and they showed little mistakes, as the dance was well practiced.

During the performance: Cocky Roo lifted his partner into the air and gave her a small toss towards the middle of the floor, which she landed on her feet. She danced by herself for a moment as the Rooster-Punk faced the staging area, struck another pose, and looked directly at Zoro and Nami as he showed them his middle finger and stuck out his pierced tongue at them before returning to his partner and finishing their routine.

After the disrespectful gesture from the punk; Zoro's hand instinctively went for his prized sword Wado Ichimonji. He started to unsheathe it, but was stopped by Nami reaching over him, wrapping her hand over his own, and pushing the sword back into its place. He looked down at her as she looked up towards him and gave him a '_Not yet_' look without ever saying a word. He simply grinded his teeth and nodded in reply.

As the music stopped and the two took a slight bow to show that they had finished; the crowd gave them a slight applause, despite their dislike for the duo, to show respect for their dancing abilities. And then it was time for the judging: The first judge gave them an 8. The second and third judges gave them both a 9. And the fourth judge gave them an 8 as well.

The last judge was vocally critical of the duo, as he was with the other three teams. "To be honest; I'm not all that impressed." He started, getting a round of applause from the crowd. "That is the same performance we have seen the last three times. I was hoping to see something different. Instead; the only thing different was that you decided to add in a rude gesture towards the staging area, which added nothing to the actual performance. But besides that; it was still a solid performance and the best of the night, so I'm giving you a 7, which brings your total score to 42. Good job."

With confident smiles overtaking their faces; Cocky Roo and Billie-Jean gave the crowd a final bow before returning to the staging area. On their way back they walked passed Zoro and Nami. Stopping and looking at the two Straw-hats "Beat that if ya can." The Rooster-Punk stated, being followed by his partner's high pitched laughter, without the cocky expression ever leaving their faces.

"Don't worry… Oreville" The spunky-navigator replied. "We will."

Zoro and Nami calmly waited for the announcer to return to the stage. When he appeared he began with their introduction. "The final competitors of the night are both from the Straw-Hat Pirates. One of them won a classical dance competition only nine days ago, while the other came in dead last."

"Oi…!" Nami screamed from the backstage area. "You didn't have to tell everybody that par…" She continued to scream as she started to violently move towards the stage, only to be stopped by Zoro who had to physically restrain her and cover her mouth with his other hand to stop the flow of obscenities that would no doubt start spewing from it.

"Ahem…" The announcer continued. "As I was saying; they are the Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro and Cat Burglar Nami!"

The crowd erupted in a fit of cheers (mainly from Luffy and the rest of the crew) as they made their way onto the dance floor. "WhooHoo…! Let's go Zoro! Come on Nami! You can do it!" Luffy cheered excitedly from his seat before him, Usopp, and Chopper all burst into a loud chant. "Zoro… Nami… Zoro… Nami…"

"Good luck Nami-swan!" Sanji bellowed over the three chanting.

Once on the dance floor; Zoro immediately made his way over to Brook so the skeleton could hold his swords again, before returning to the middle of the stage and his partner Nami.

"It should also be noted that they will be dancing to an original score recorded by the world famous Soul King Brook himself." The announcer said before leaving the stage.

"By the way skeleton…" Franky spoke to grab the eldest member of the crew's attention. "This dance they are about to perform, is it super?"

"Well… I'll only say this." Brook started to answer. "It's too bad that we didn't bring a camera. After all; with the dress Nami-san is wearing, I'm sure we're all in for a panty shot or two, Yohohoho."

Hearing Brook's statement caused the cook to draw all his attention onto the skeleton. "What…!" The cook said grabbing the musician by his shirt. "Why didn't you tell me, you stupid hollow-skulled-bastard?" He proceeded to shake the other pervert violently as Franky and Usopp tried to pull the two apart, all the while Luffy was just laughing his head off.

Back on stage: Zoro and Nami had got into their positions for the performance to start. Nami was standing with her back pressed against the front of Zoro, as both of his hands rested on her waist, while one of hers was crossed over her waist and the other was grabbing the back of his head while his chin rested on her shoulder. The crowd grew silent, and all the nonsense in the stands stopped, as the arena was filled with a serious atmosphere.

As the music started in a low sultry-rhythm; Zoro and Nami started to slowly move their hips together while Nami dragged her hand slowly down Zoro's face and over her own body before letting it rest over her other arm draped across her waist. As the songs rhythm started to increase; the two separated, and Nami turned to face her partner. She placed both of her hands on his shoulders as his hands had remained on her waist, going into a salsa-styled dance.

They continued doing their salsa steps until the music picked up very aggressively, in which Nami took both hands from Zoro's shoulders and shoved him backwards. She then turned from him and acted like she was walking away as he pursued. He reached out to her and grabbed her arm to pull her back towards him, she responded by swinging her leg up and in a high arch as if to kick him. He ducked under the leg as she spun around until her back faced him again. With her back towards him and her leg still slightly in the air, he wrapped one arm around her waist and the other under her still raised leg, lifting her into the air in a spin as the music started to break into the chorus of the song.

They continued to do acrobatic dancing during the remainder of the chorus, including one move where Zoro lifted her all the way above his head and balanced her with one hand placed onto Nami's stomach. Once the chorus broke and the sultry-rhythm returned, they went back to their salsa steps. They would continue the salsa steps until the chorus would sound again, and then they went back into more of the acrobatic dancing.

After the chorus broke again, the music got more aggressive and they would go into what almost appeared to be synchronized dance fighting. The chorus then started again for the third and final time where they went back to the acrobatic dancing. Zoro lifted Nami all the way back into the air again: This time holding one of her hands in his own as the other was placed on her shoulder with her hands the same to balance her, her legs were all the way into the air pointing towards the ceiling, as their faces were almost nose to nose as he slowly turned them around in 360degree rotation.

In the backstage area; Cocky Roo saw the performing Straw-Hat's positions as an opportune time to dump all of his marbles out of his bag so that they would slide across the floor towards the unsuspecting duo… But the marbles never made it to their desired target. Instead several hands sprouted from the floor to catch all marbles and send them in a different direction. Once the marbles were no longer a threat the hands disappeared, leaving behind a small cloud of cherry-blossoms in their wake. Surprisingly the cherry-blossoms actually added to the performance that was currently on stage.

The Rooster-Punk and the Laughing-Girl stood speechless as they tried to wrap their heads around what had just happened. But they didn't have much time to think about it as a clone of Robin started to slowly appear from the floor before grabbing Billie-Jean and holding her so she couldn't escape. Cocky Roo started to panic and thought about leaving, but he wasn't able to as the large body of Franky came into the backstage area from another door and grabbed him up as well.

Back on the stage: The final chorus started to end and Zoro slowly lowered Nami back to the ground, where they would go back into their salsa steps until the music started to slow. As the music started to slow to a stop; Nami brought her knee up to Zoro's side (the knee that was on the slit side of her dress), in which he removed his hand from her waist and placed it underneath her leg onto her bare skin, he then slowly slid his hand all the way to her knee. Once at her knee; he pulled her all the way into his body in one fluid motion. Sliding her hands from his shoulders to behind his head, she arched her back and pulled his head into her chest. They held the pose even after the music came to a complete stop.

As the two continued to hold their pose; the crowd erupted in a loud frenzy of cheers. The two slowly started to stand upright, as a small red tint came over their faces after realizing the position that they had been in in-front of so many people. But despite their blushes, both Nami and Zoro had smiles plastered across their faces.

And it was time for the judging: The first judge gave their performance a 7. The second judge gave them an 8, while the third and the fourth judge both gave the two of them 9s. Meaning they would have to get a 9 or better to beat Cocky Roo and Billie-Jean. Their hearts sank a little when they realized that is was up to the last judge on whether or not they would be triumphed (not to mention the hardest of the judges to please).

As always; the last judge would not give his score without stating his opinion. "To tell you the truth; the two of you surprised me." The judge began, causing the entire room to grow silent. "I didn't expect much out of the two of you. But your dance was very unique. It was like two lovers battling over whether to love or hate each other." Nami and Zoro's blushes deepened at the 'lovers' comment.

The crowd remained completely silent as they waited for the judge's decision. "You should feel honored." The judge spoke, causing excitement to start to build in the room. "I don't do this often, but for your performance I will make an exception. I give you a 10. Congratulations, you are tonight's winners."

The crowd exploded into another fit of cheers as Nami and Zoro remained in the middle of the stage speechless before Nami finally spoke. "We won? We Won!" Nami yelled excitedly as Zoro stood beside her with a smug grin starting to form on his face. Suddenly and without warning; Nami reached up, wrapping both hands behind Zoro's head and abruptly pulling it down towards her own, before smashing her lips onto his.

Zoro froze instantly as he felt their lips make contact. His eye widened in shock as he quickly tried to figure out what was going on. His hands started to lift from his body, and approach her head so he could instinctively return the kiss, but before they found her head, she broke the kiss. "Do you know how much money we just made?" She asked him, looking up into his eye with her hands still grasping the back of his head, while a huge smile that rivaled Luffy's was present across her beautiful face. "WhooHoo..!" She screamed in celebration, finally letting go of him.

Zoro remained frozen in place, with his mouth hung open, as he watched her celebrate. He slowly turned his head towards the rest of his nakama as he tried to grasp what had just happened; only to find that a number of them had the same similar expressions on their own faces: Brook and Usopp stood side by side with their mouths gaped, while Sanji had his mouth open as well but appeared very pale as a cigarette hung loosely on his bottom lip. Chopper tried to hide his eyes from the scene, but was still peeking through his hooves. Even Robin's expression looked slightly surprised, while Luffy's seemed confused. (Franky was still in back taking care of Cocky Roo and Billie-Jean along with Robin's clone.)

Feeling left out of the celebration; Luffy finally rushed the stage and tackled his two oldest nakama, with the rest of the crew soon to follow.

-0-0-0-0-

A little later on the gambling floor: The crew (with the exception of Franky) had assembled to collect their winnings. After doing so they all stood around chatting about different subjects like some of the tougher acrobatic moves that Zoro and Nami had performed, and as well as the music that Brook had prepared.

"Well… What do we do now?" Usopp questioned.

"We have a party of course!" Luffy yelled excitedly. "With tons of meat."

"I could go for some booze right now." -Zoro

"That sounds great." –Nami

"That all sounds like a wonderful idea," Robin confirmed to the crew with a polite smile. "But first, Franky-san and I have a surprise for everyone. He is out back with my double. We should go meet him."

After exiting the building the Straw-hats all proceeded to an isolated ally that was behind the casino. Once there they met Franky and Robin's double that had a very terrified Cocky Roo and Billie-Jean standing on their knees in front of them. Upon seeing the troublesome duo in such a pathetic state, Zoro and Nami couldn't help but let amused smiles take over their faces.

"Okay… Okay… We're sorry… Please just let us go." Billie-Jean begged as Zoro and Nami neared them.

"You're sorry?" Nami asked. "It's a little late for that, isn't it?"

"Oh come on…" Cocky Roo started to plead. "It wasn't personal. It was just business. You guys won the dance competition. So we're even."

"Even? You guys drugged us, made us lose the drinking contest, not to mention lose out on the prize money, and then Robin and the guys told us how you tried to cheat during the dance contest. How are we even?" Nami responded, getting only inches from the man's face with a very threatening look in her eyes.

"Okay… I get it. Just calm down." The Rooster-Punk tried to reason. "You can't kill us, right? This is a safe haven island. There are rules against that."

"Rules…?" Zoro spoke, walking up to stand right beside the navigator. "Did you forget that were pirates? We don't have to follow rules." He finished with a sadistic smirk on his face as he started to unsheathe a sword.

"Now hold on Zoro." Nami reached her hand out to stop him before continuing. "We're reasonable people. We're not going to kill them." The navigator's statement caused the two terrified punks to let out a sigh of relief. "But that doesn't mean we can't hurt them."

Nami's second statement caused the two to start to panic. "Please don't hurt us." Billie-Jean begged with tears forming in her eyes. "We already said that we're sorry, what more do you want from us?"

"The prize money from last night's competition and any other money you have on you right now." Nami answered the scared woman. "Give it to me and we're let you go, simple as that."

"But we don't have it." Cocky Roo confessed with a terrified expression. "I had some gambling debts that I needed to pay off, and we already spent it."

"Well that's too bad." Nami responded. "I guess we'll just have to get our payback another way."

"Another way…? How…" The blond woman asked as she and her partner started to grow pale.

"Sanji-kun…" Nami addressed the cook. "You might want to go get your camera from the ship for this."

"Aye Nami-swan…!" Sanji responded before dashing off towards the ship with unbelievable speed.

"Usopp, did you bring the rope?" Nami asked the sharp-shooter.

"Yep." The long-nose answered.

"Luffy, did you bring the markers?"

"Shishishi… Yep." Confirmed the captain as he broke out into his trademark smile.

"Perfect." Nami finished simply.

"What are you going to do to us?" Cocky Roo asked, not sure if he wanted to know the answer or not.

None of the crew responded to him though. Instead they simple glared at the duo as huge evil smiles overtook all of their faces.

-0-0-0-0-

In the middle of the city of Las Jaeger there is a statue of the city's founder which sits on top of a large stone column. Around the statue a large crowd of people have gathered with their cameras out and at the ready. The flashes of the cameras light up the night's sky as the crowd eagerly takes pictures. But it is not the statue itself that has drawn the crowd's attention; it is what lies at the bottom of the column.

Located at the bottom of the stone column were the two familiar faces of the duo that was Cocky Roo and Billie-Jean. They stood tied to the column with a couple of pieces of thick rope, without a stich of clothing, and their faces covered brightly with multiple colors from permanent markers for the entire city to see (I'll leave the marker designs for all of your imaginations).

"Please... *sob*… *sob*… just don't stand there… *sob*. Untie us, this isn't right. *Sob*…" Billie-Jean pleaded to the crowd with tears running down her face, causing some of the color from the markers to slightly run.

"Aww… what's wrong Billie-Jean?" A woman from the crowd asked in a mocking tone. "You don't think this is funny? Well we all think this is hilarious. Let's hear that annoying laugh of yours. Hahaha…"

"Dammit, this isn't a joke! Someone cut these damn ropes and let us go!" The Rooster-Punk spat viciously at the crowd.

"Ya know, for a guy that calls himself Cocky, he doesn't have much in that department, does he?" A man jeered from the crowd, getting a hardy laughter from everyone nearby.

As embarrassment and frustration took over, Cocky Roo looked up to the sky before letting out "DAMN YOU STRAW-HATS…!"

-0-0-0-0-

With everything done that the Straw-hat pirates had set out to do on the island of Shaka, and the log-pose set, they lifted anchor and set sail for the next island. Once out on the open ocean, the celebration for Zoro and Nami's victory began and lasted well into the night before finally settling down.

It was just past 1 am and Zoro was in the crows-nest sitting alone in the dark. He had changed out of the clothes that he had performed in long ago to don a pair of loose fitting green pants, and a simple white t-shirt. He watched from the window as he saw a light on in the kitchen, and the occasional shadow-play as someone moved about. Even from where Zoro was, he could tell that it was the resident cook, undoubtedly cleaning up from the earlier festivities.

He watched the light turn off and a seemingly groggy Sanji make his exit from the kitchen, before heading towards the men's quarters, and finally disappearing inside. Once he was sure the cook had retired for the evening; feelings of excitement and eagerness started to build in him as he continued to wait in the crows-nest, intensely watching the hatch as if waiting for someone to show up.

Another 30 minutes or so passed with no activity. His eye wandered to the window again as he scanned the deck for any movement. '_Tch… she's late?_' He thought to himself wondering where the person he was waiting for was.

A light appeared in the room behind him causing him to slightly perk up as he whipped his head around towards the hatch. But when his eye adjusted and finally made out the figure in front of him, his eagerness disappeared and confusion took over.

"Good evening kenshi-san. What are you still doing up?" The ships archeologist asked the younger man, as she stood in front of him with a cup of coffee in one hand, a large book in another, and a gas lantern in another.

Zoro continued to look at the woman in front of him; his mind drawing a complete blank as he tried to respond. "I… uh..." Were the only words he was able to vocalize.

Robin's expression softened as she saw the clear confusion on his face. "I don't think she is coming Zoro. I'm scheduled for the first night shift and then it is supposed to be long-nose-san next."

"Oh… I see." He responded to the older woman with disappointment clearly forming on his face. '_Of course she isn't coming. The dance contest is over baka. There's no need to practice anymore._' He inwardly scolded himself.

"But if you would still like a dance partner tonight, I'd be more than happy to volunteer." Robin said hoping to cheer him up. "It would make the time go by much quicker."

"No, that's ok Robin." The swordsman declined her offer as he stood from the bench and made his way towards the hatch. "I think I'll just call it a night."

"Very well," Robin told him as he started to descend down the hatch ladder. "Have a pleasant sleep Zoro." She finished before making her way over to the bench.

He only responded to her with a simple "Hmph" as he made his way down towards the deck. Once on deck he started to move towards the men's quarters, but somehow found himself standing in Nami's mikan-grove several minutes later instead. '_Damn that Franky for making a ship with moving rooms._' Not wanting to spend all night trying to figure out where the room had moved to this time, he decided to slump down against the trunk of one of the mikan trees, before placing his hands behind his head and closing his eye to let sleep take over him.

-0-0-0-0-

2:30 am: Nami had tried going to sleep over an hour ago, but instead she had just been tossing and turning restlessly. Her mind was running a mile a minute; constantly going over the night's events. One scene in particular kept recurring. '_I kissed Zoro._' She thought to herself as she remembered pulling his head towards her own and smashing their lips together. It was not the action that bothered her the most, but the cause of the action. '_Why did I kiss him? In front of the entire crew no less. And why didn't he kiss me back?_' Her hand moved towards her lips, touching them lightly, as she remembered the warmth of the swordsman's lips on her own. Starting to feel warm from the blush that was no doubt forming on her face; she gave a frustrated sigh as she sat upwards from her laying position, swung her feet over the side of the bed, and made her way towards the exit. '_Maybe some fresh air and a drink will help calm me down so I can actually get some sleep?_'

After heading to the kitchen to find a bottle of sake and a glass, she exited and looked up towards the crows-nest and noticed a glowing light and a figure sitting by the window. She carefully made her way to the room without dropping the bottle or cup, and entered through the hatch to find Robin with her nose buried in a book. "Oh… hey Robin." Nami spoke softly, drawing the other woman's attention.

Upon seeing the younger woman; the archeologist closed her book and responded "Good evening Nami-san. Could you not sleep?" She finished with a polite smile.

Nami crossed the distance and sat down by the other woman. "Nah… I'm too excited."

"Oh… and why is that?" Robin's eye brows raised a little.

"I don't know…" Nami said sheepishly as she averted her eyes from the older woman. "Maybe I'm just excited because of all the money we made."

"Is that all?" Robin asked while giving the younger woman her all-knowing smile. "And here I thought it could have been for a different reason."

Nami knew better than to try and cover her emotions from Robin, so she opted out for changing the subject instead. "Want to join me for a drink?"

Robin looked back at Nami for a moment with her piercing eyes. Then a sudden glint of mischievousness flashed in the older woman's eyes as a slight smirk played across her face. "No thank you Nami-san. I'm rather enjoying this cup of coffee and this book at the moment." She answered getting a slightly confused/disappointed look from Nami in reaction. "It is such a lovely night out, why don't you enjoy a drink in your mikan-grove?"

Nami was slightly taken aback by Robin's comments. She wasn't sure why the archeologist didn't want her company, but she could also see the logic in what the older woman had suggested. The night was clear without even a hint of bad weather, and maybe being in the comforting surroundings of her mikan trees might help calm her mind. "Ok Robin, thank you for the suggestion."

As the navigator stood from her seat to make her exit; Robin reopened her book to the page that she had last been reading. The two said their good nights to each other before the younger woman left the crows-nest. Once Nami had completely left; Robin let out a small, almost unnoticeable, soft laughter.

-0-0-0-0-

Despite being asleep Zoro could feel a presence beside him. He opened his eye and turned his attention towards the familiar form of Robin looking down on him. She didn't say a word; she simply stood there with a mischievous smile on her face, before handing him an empty cup and disappearing in cloud of cherry-blossoms.

He stared at the cup confused; trying to figure out if she was giving him some cryptic message, or trying to give him a puzzle that he was supposed to solve. Then he felt another presence approaching him from behind. He could hear soft footsteps from bare feet moving across the dirt.

"Zoro…? What are you doing up here?" Zoro turned his head towards the source of the feminine voice to see Nami standing there in a set of loose fitting pajamas. She had the same confused look on her face that he had on his. He also noticed that she was carrying an empty cup and bottle of sake in her hand.

"I was sleeping. Until Robin gave me a cup and disappeared." The swordsman answered Nami.

Realization struck Nami on why Robin had suggested that she have a drink in the mikan-grove. She let out a small chuckle at the still confused look on the first-mate's face before taking a seat next to him. "Whatever… You're awake now, have a drink with me." She told him as she reached the bottle out towards him. Zoro gave a simple nod as he extended the cup for her to fill it with sake. They sat in silence, enjoying their drinks and each other's company as they stared at the night's sky.

While looking up at the stars Zoro's mind began to wander, and a certain image started to pop up in his head. It was the image of Nami pulling him into her and kissing him. Regardless of how much he tried to shake it from his thoughts, he just couldn't.

"Why did you do it?" Zoro asked the mikan-head sitting next to him. She turned to him with confusion written on her face, wanting him to elaborate. "Why did you kiss me back at the competition?" He averted his eyes, as a small blush formed on his cheeks.

Nami's face also flushed red, because she had actually been thinking the exact same thing. She paused for several moments, searching her brain for the right answer before saying "I don't know…" She confessed in a quiet voice. "Maybe it was from the excitement of all the money we won?" Her answer wasn't a lie. No matter how many times she asked that same question in her head, she was still unable to answer it clearly. Yet at the same time; a little part of her also wanted to tell him 'Because I think that I wanted to.'

A small feeling of disappointment crept its way into Zoro as he acknowledged her answer. '_That makes the most sense._' He thought to himself. Her confession brought another question to his mind though. "Now what do we do from here?"

Again Nami looked at him confused. Zoro wasn't the type to ask a lot of questions, let alone cryptic ones. It was unusual for him to be so vague. He was normally straight forward. She could tell that something was bothering him, so she asked him to elaborate once more. "What do you mean Zoro?"

"Well…" He began slowly. "Now that my debt is paid, what do we do from here now that you can't blackmail me anymore?"

Nami's eyes widened after hearing his question. She brought her thumb up to her mouth to chew on the nail as she pondered his question. '_What does he mean by that? Was Robin right? If Zoro had no obligations to pay me back, would he eventually leave the crew, and me?_'

He looked her in the eye as he waited for her answer. He couldn't help but noticed that she looked slightly worried. He started to regret asking the question. But suddenly the worried look on her face disappeared as she removed her hand from her mouth, and a sly smile took over instead. "What makes you think you're debt free?" She asked him.

"The deal was if we won the dance contest you would clear my debt." He answered her. "You're not backing out on the deal are you?"

"Of course not." The mikan-head's smile started to grow as Zoro could almost watch the gears in her head turning. "Your original debt is cleared, as we agreed upon. But… you should have realized by now that I'm charging you for the money I lost out on for the drinking contest." The swordsman's eye narrowed as he started to glare at the woman beside him. "There was the 4,000 beli to enter the contest. The 500,000 beli we would have won. And the 250,000 beli I bet on us to win. So you owe me 754,000 beli. And that doesn't even include interest."

Nami watched the man beside her continue to stare at her with an angry expression on his face. But suddenly his angry expression softened and he started to laugh out loud. "Hahaha…" She was taken aback as she observed him lean his head back against the tree that was behind him and let out a huge sigh before he spoke. "I'm never gonna be debt free from you, am I?" There was no malice or anger in his voice, in fact, it almost sounded like relief.

"Probably not." She answered him truthfully.

"Hmph… I guess I'll just have to stick around until you decide that we're even."

As his words sunk in, Nami noticed that a tension that was in the air around them until that time seemed to completely disappear. She could feel the smile on her face as she looked back up towards the sky and truly noticed the stars for the first time. "It's really beautiful out tonight." She stated out loud to no in particular.

"Hmph…" Zoro agreed. "You looked beautiful tonight." He hadn't even realized that he said those words out loud until they were already spoken. '_What the hell was that baka? You're starting to sound like that damn cheesy love-cook._' He started to inwardly curse at himself as he turned to her to gauge her reaction.

At first Nami wasn't sure if she had actually heard him right. Her mouth hung slightly open in shock as the words registered. But as she noticed the similar shocked expression on Zoro's face; she knew that he had indeed said it. She couldn't control herself as she burst into a small fit of laughter. "Hahaha… Did Roronoa Zoro, the feared pirate swordsman worth 120,000,000 beli, just pay me a compliment?" She watched as his expression went from shocked to embarrass as she voiced her question. She couldn't help but think that his sudden statement actually sounded kinda cute.

"Hahaha…" She started to slap him on top of his shoulder as she laughed. "Oh Zoro, you're such a charmer." Her hand went up to wipe the tears that were starting to form in her eyes away. "You know…" She started to say in a seductive voice. "Robin still has watch for a couple of more hours. Why don't we slip on over to the women's quarters and you can pay me some more compliments?"

Zoro suddenly stood up right and towered over her with no readable expression on his; Nami's eyes widened in slight shock as she looked up at him. '_He doesn't think I was serious does he?_' The mikan-head had only suggested that they go to the women's quarters as a joke. She felt herself gulp as she tried to build her resolve. '_Well I did offer it, so if he decides to take me up on it…_'

After hovering over her quietly for a few seconds (which felt like minutes to Nami) he finally spoke. "Enjoy the rest of your drink." He said emotionless as he started to turn to walk away.

Realizing that she had offended him she quickly reached out her arm and grabbed his wrist before he could get too far. "Wait Zoro… I'm sorry." She quickly apologized to him, hoping that he wouldn't leave. "I didn't mean to offend you. Please sit back down." Her apology seemed to be working as he lowered himself back down beside her.

He sat and stared at her intently, waiting for her to continue. "You just took me by surprise. I didn't think that I would ever hear something like that from you."

Zoro let out a sigh and lowered his head as her words registered. He gave her a slight nod to confirm that his sudden confession was strange, even to him. He desperately searched his head to try and come up with the words to explain why he had said it and how he was feeling, but nothing was coming out. He wasn't good with talking about stuff like that: he was a swordsman. He never had to talk about his feelings before.

Somehow sensing what Zoro was thinking by the conflicted look on his face; Nami decided to continue speaking for the both of them. "Whatever your feeling right now Zoro; I think I'm feeling it too." She paused to see if he had any reaction to her words; when his head rose to look her in the eye, she knew they did. "It's strange for me too. We're nakama; we're not supposed to feel this way. But we do, and we can't help that." A small smile formed on her lips as she reached out and took his hand. "Whatever this is that we're doing right now; let's just take it slow. If we proceed too fast things are just gonna get complicated quickly, and it's better to keep it simple, right?"

Zoro continued to look her in the eye to judge whether what she was saying was the truth. Seeing no hint of deception in her eyes, a small smile formed on his face as he nodded his head to confirm that he agreed with her. "Yeah… simple is good. Let's do that." He answered her as he leaned his back against the mikan-tree behind him.

Content smiles formed on both of their faces as they realized what had just happened. They had both, in their own ways, confessed that they were having strong feelings for one another. Zoro laid his head back onto the tree at his back so that he could look back up towards the sky, while Nami released his hand so that she could snake her arms around his arm and snuggle into it, using his shoulder as a pillow. They both watched the stars in silence for several more moments; neither realizing that sleep was starting to take over…

…

…

**End Chapter 8**

Author notes: WhooHoo! I actually updated this story in less than 30 days! I'm so proud of myself!

First of all I would like to thank the wonderful artist who made the picture I'm using as my new cover page (wherever they may be).

If any of you are wondering where I got the inspiration for my characters Cocky Roo and Billie-Jean; here it is. In my head Cocky Roo looks like a young **Billy Idol** (**Punk Rock Legend**) with a fohawk and red goatee, while Billie-Jean looks like a young **Helen Slater** (**Super Girl TV Series/The Legend of Billie-Jean Movie**) with red streaks in her hair and piercings. What can I say? I'm a 80s kid. And yes; that is why the song **"Rebel Yell"** inspired their performance. And since a rooster is also referred to as a cock; the name Cocky Roo comes from a play on the word rooster.

Also since no one ever told me if they had figured out where I was getting the names for the island/city/and casinos from: They are all types of Liquor/Alcohol.

Well people: It is almost there. Only one more chapter to go (maybe two depending on whether I get carried away with the next one or not).

And as always: Thanks for taking the time to read, and please review, unless you're scared that is Muahahahahaha…


	9. Chapter 9

I still don't claim to own One Piece or any of its characters. I barely own the mind that comes up with all the awkward situations that I put all the characters in.

…

…

**Dance the Night Away Chapter 9**

The sun had risen over the Sunny only hours ago. It was nearing 7am and several of the crew had started filing into the kitchen. Sanji was of course the first one there to prepare breakfast. He was soon joined by Luffy who was waiting impatiently for his first of 12 major meals that day. Brook, Chopper, Franky, and Robin would soon follow.

Having just finished his night shift watch; an extremely tired Usopp came wandering into the kitchen. "Sanji-kun" The sniper addressed the cook in a very whiny tone. "Is breakfast ready yet?"

"Quit your whining you long-nose bastard. I've already had to put up with the shitty-rubber-baka asking the same damn question. And you all know the rule; no one eats until Nami-san is here." The blond man angrily retorted. "Why don't one of you barbarians make yourselves useful and go tell her? And wake the damn marimo up while you're at it."

"I'll do it." Brook said cheerily as he strode towards the door leading out to the deck. "Maybe I'll be able to get a peek at Nami-san's panties."

"THE HELL YOU WILL..!" Sanji screamed at the skeleton-musician to stop him in his tracks. "…Anybody else besides the damn pervert!"

"Ow… No perverts huh? I guess that leaves me and cook-bro out too then." Franky exclaimed.

"Don't go lumping me in with you and the damn hollow-skulled-freak, you shitty-metal-bastard!"

"It breaks my heart that you would call me that Sanji-san. Even though I have no heart to break, Yohohoho, Skull…" WHAM…

Before Brook could finish his trademark Skull Joke, his face was met by an empty metal frying pan that was sent flying across the room by a now enraged Sanji. "Would someone just go wake Nami-san so we can eat breakfast and I can get all you bastards out of my kitchen?!"

"I'm so hungry." Luffy complained. "I guess I'll do it." The young captain slowly lifted himself up from his chair and walked over to the ladder that led up to the garden deck. The rest of the crew watched in silent curiosity as he climbed the ladder, opened the hatch, stuck only his head out, and yelled "ZORO, NAMI, WAKE UP, IT'S TIME TO EAT!" before hopping down from the ladder and walking back over to his seat.

The crew all continued to stare at the rubber-man with confused looks on their faces after witnessing his peculiar actions, with the exception of Robin whose nose never left her book. "Oi, Luffy" Usopp spoke up to break the awkward silence. "Why did you yell out over the garden deck? Wouldn't it have just been easier to go find them?"

"But I already know where they are." Luffy started to answer his friend. "They slept together in Nami's mikan-grove last night." He finished like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"WHAT…?!" Usopp, Brook, Franky, and Chopper all exclaimed at once, while Robin remained silent, and Sanji grit his teeth.

The crew grew deathly silent as most of them tried to process what their captain had just told them. Soon they heard the sounds of movement and the inaudible curses of their missing two nakama coming from directly above them. They watched the ladder closely as a pair of black boots found their footing on the top ring of the ladder before making their decent and confirming that Zoro, who was still wearing the clothes from last night, had indeed been on the garden deck. Soon to follow was a pair of dirty bare feet followed by their owner who was still in her pajamas.

Nami and Zoro then made their way over to the table, sitting down next to each other, as the crew continued to stare wide-eyed at the two. Nami tried to avert eye contact away from her nakamas' gazing eyes, while Zoro crossed his arms in front of his chest and glared back at them. Finally feeling like the awkward silence was too much too bare; the swordsman broke it by barking out a stern "What are you all staring at?"

"Zoro" Usopp started to question. "You and Nami slept together? When did all this start?"

"What…?" It was now Nami's and Zoro's turns to be shocked. "We didn't sleep together." Nami quickly spat out trying to defend herself from Usopp's question.

"Yeah you did." Luffy said slightly confused because of Nami's lie. "I could feel both of your presences up there with Kenbunshoku* Haki." After hearing Luffy's statement, the men of the crew all erupted in their comments and questions for the two.

"Ow! That's SUPER swords-bro! I didn't think you'd make your move so soon. Maybe we need to think about making these two lovebirds their own room so they have more privacy?" -Franky

"Franky already knew about it? How long has this been going on? You're supposed to be nakama. Doesn't that make your relationship a little weird? Did you ever stop to think about how the rest of the crew would feel about it?" –Usopp

"I can't believe the two of you have been mating. Is Nami on any birth control? Have you been practicing safe sex? I'll have to sit down with both of you and do blood tests to make sure you're not passing on any STDs to one another, as well as to make sure Nami isn't pregnant." –Chopper

"Yohohoho! I have to ask Zoro-san, what color are Nami-san's panties?" –Brook

"I don't get it. What's the big deal? We all sleep together all the time." –Luffy

"It's not the same thing Luffy. Does someone need to give you 'the talk'? Because if they do; I nominate Zoro because it's half his fault that this conversation is even happening. All agreed..?" –Usopp

"I second that motion." –Franky

"Aye" –Chopper

"Aye" –Brook

"Aye" –Robin

"ENOUGH..!" Nami screamed out over her crewmates as she stood from her seat, slamming both of her fists down onto the table. "Zoro and I did not sleep together!" She started to explain while giving all the crew a threatening glare. "We had a couple of drinks last night, and we fell asleep next to each other. That's all."

"I still don't understand." Luffy said with confusion clearly written on his face. "What's the difference?"

"The difference is that all these idiots think that Zoro and I are having sex together." The navigator told her captain in a stern voice. "And that's not what is happening. There is nothing going on between me and Zoro. And it should be obvious that there never could be." There was a slight sadness in her tone when she said the last sentence.

She looked down at the man beside her to see that Zoro was looking up at her. For a moment; she could have sworn that she saw a betrayed look in his eye. But it was only for a moment as his expression became emotionless and he looked back across the table at the rest of the crew.

"After all" The mikan-head started speaking again. "If this is how you would all react to something that isn't happening; I'd hate to see how you guys would react if it was." She continued to look at the crew with sadness clearly visible on her face for a few more moments before speaking again. "I'm gonna go take a shower. Go ahead and eat without me. I'm not hungry."

The crew watched in silence as Nami left the dining area to head out towards the deck. Once she was gone; all eyes turned to Zoro. Said swordsman simply stared back at everyone for a moment, before standing up himself, and quietly making his way for the exit. He gave one last look back at the crew; stopping when his eye locked onto Sanji's (who had been unusually quiet during the whole exchange, and only gave Zoro a stern glance of his own), before exiting the kitchen and slamming the door behind him.

After having watched their nakama leave the kitchen, the rest of the crew all sat at the table with defeated faces. All of them feeling guilty (some more than others) about the bad moods that the swordsman and the navigator left in.

-0-0-0-0-

After Nami took her shower she shut herself in the library and worked on her maps. None of the crew dared to bother her fearing the full blunt of her wrath if they did. She didn't even bother coming out when lunch was called.

Zoro was behaving in a similar way. After exiting the kitchen before breakfast; he immediately went and changed his clothes into his normal attire, and then made his way to the crows-nest where he had stayed for most of the day to work out. Like Nami he didn't bother to attend lunch either. The only sound the crew had heard from him since morning was the sound of heavy metal plates clanging together. He eventually did come down from the crows-nest around 1pm to try and take a nap under the shade of a tree on the lawn deck.

Since Nami was still holed up in the library; Franky had taken it upon himself to make sure the ship was on course, while Robin helped with the navigating. Luffy, Usopp, Brook and Chopper were in the aquarium bar telling stories to each other, while Sanji had just finished a drink for Robin and was exiting the kitchen to take it to her.

While crossing the lawn deck; Sanji paused to glance over at his rival who was feigning sleep. He let out a dissatisfied "Tch" towards the swordsman before continuing up the stairs and onto the forward deck to present the drink to Robin. "Here you are Robin-chan. I hope the baka-cyborg is not being too much of a bother to you." The cook said as he handed the drink to Robin and gave her a polite bow.

"Thank you for the drink Sanji-san." Robin responded with a polite smile. "And Franky-san is no bother at all."

"Very well Robin-chan. Just call my name if you need anything." Sanji didn't wait for her to respond; instead he turned his attention out to sea as he pulled a cigarette from his front pocked and lit it. As he watched the scenery he noticed that they were starting to pass a small landmass sticking out of the ocean.

It wasn't really big enough to be considered an island because it didn't even register on the log pose, but it wasn't tiny either. It was roughly 120yards in length and 54yards in width (the size of an American football field). It had a small beach that was visible from the Sunny's deck and was covered by thick timber.

Sanji took a final drag from his cigarette before tossing it into the ocean and addressing his large crewmate. "Oi, robot" The cook spoke grabbing Franky attention. "Steer us over by that patch of land and drop anchor." Sanji instructed as he pointed his finger out towards the land mass.

"What's up cook-bro?" Franky asked while doing what he was told. "You planning a picnic are something?"

As if the word picnic was a magic calling card to their ever-hungry captain; Luffy came flying out of the aquarium bar up to the deck in an instant. "Did someone say picnic? Is Sanji making bentos*?" The rubber-man asked with drool starting to form at the side of his mouth.

The rest of the crew started to file out onto the forward deck; curious to see why they had made anchor, even Nami. The only one who didn't join everyone was Zoro who remained on the lawn deck.

"No we aren't having a picnic you damn-bottomless-pit. You just ate lunch less than an hour ago." Sanji answered Luffy's earlier question. "There is something that I've been meaning to do for a couple of days now, and that bit of land is perfect for it." With no further explanation Sanji proceeded down the stairs and across the lawn deck. He stalked towards the still lying form of Zoro before stopping in front of him.

"What do want cook?" The swordsman questioned without ever opening his eye.

"You. Me. There. Now." Sanji answered pointing towards the landmass.

Zoro finally opened his eye and started to stand to his feet. He picked up his swords that were lying close by and put them in his red-sash. He didn't question the cook; almost as if he had been expecting Sanji's invitation for some time. His face was very serious as he stared back at his rival. "Took ya long enough curly-brow. Let's get this over with."

"Oi robot" Sanji hollered at Franky again. "Switch to dock 2; we're taking the Mini Merry II out."

The crew watched silently (some of them confused) as the two disappeared below deck. Franky did as he was asked because he had a grasp on the situation, and opened the bay to dock 2. The crew watched as the Mini Merry II slowly started to float away from the ship towards the landmass.

"I don't understand. What are they doing? Is there something in those woods they need to get?" Chopper asked aloud, as he watched the two men disappear into the trees.

"It's SUPER man stuff doctor-bro. You'll understand when you get a bit older." Franky answered the small reindeer.

"Wait" Usopp piped up. "You mean those two are going out there to fight each other? Shouldn't we have tried to stop them?"

"So they are going to go spar." Luffy stated thinking he was starting to get a grasp on situation. "That's no fair. I want to spar." He finished with a visible pout.

"It's more complicated than that Luffy-san." Brook tried to explain as best he could. "It is something that the two of them have to get out of their system to move on with how they are feeling."

"Ohh… So it's a mystery sparing match." The captain said certain that he understood this time.

Nami let out a "Tch" at the whole concept of the situation. "It's two men acting stupid if you ask me." The navigator said as she walked down the stairs towards the lawn deck.

"But the two of them looked really serious." The small reindeer said with concern still audible in his voice. "It doesn't feel like their normal fights. It feels like someone is gonna get hurt."

"I wouldn't worry too much if I were you doctor-san." Robin spoke to try and reassure Chopper. "I'd say that there is only a 50% chance the fight is to the death."

"DON'T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT ROBIN!" Usopp and Chopper both screamed in unison.

Suddenly everyone heard what sounded like a small explosion coming from Zoro's and Sanji's chosen battle ground. The crew watched as several trees in the distance started to fall over, and as all the birds that once inhabited those trees flew off to go and find safety. They heard several more small explosions before seeing Sanji start to hover above the trees while doing his Sky Walk technique. While Sanji was in the air a huge tree was seen flying from the ground to the sky like a huge spear. The crew watched in shock at the ferocity of the 'sparing match' that was taking place.

"I stand corrected." Robin spoke, catching the rest of the crew's attention. "I'd say there is a 75% chance that it is a fight to the death."

"ROBIN!"

-0-0-0-0-

Hours had passed, and Zoro's and Sanji's 'sparring-match' still continued. Most of the crew had grown tired of watching the ongoing fight and had wandered off to other parts of the ship long ago. Franky had disappeared into the lower levels of the ship to tinker with a few things in his weapons factory. Robin had gone off to the library where she could read in quiet, while Usopp, Chopper, and Brook were in the aquarium bar exchanging stories, and occasionally listening to a song from Brook.

The only remaining Straw-hats watching the small landmass was the Straw-hat captain himself, who was watching from his favorite spot on top of the figure head, and the navigator; who watched from the lawn deck with a bored expression and her elbows propped on the railing.

The small explosions and low rumbles from the landmass had been steadily slowing for some time as the two fighters were no doubt starting to tire out. As Nami watched; she let out a small sigh, only one of many that she had let out over the last couple of hours, as she continued to contemplate the meaning of the two's seemingly impromptu skirmish. '_Are those two idiots fighting over me? That's the last thing I wanted. I should have known better than to start letting these dumb feelings start to develop and show. Now the whole damn crew is judging us for it._' Nami let out another sigh as she finished the thoughts in her head.

As she stood there; she could hear small footsteps slowly coming up behind her. She didn't bother turning around to see who it was, because she already knew that the footsteps belonged to the young doctor Chopper.

"I don't need any blood work done Chopper." She told the little reindeer without ever turning to look at him.

"That… That's not what I wanted to ask you." Chopper said sheepishly, struggling to get out his question as he looked at the back of her head. Finally finding the resolve "Are-you-and-Zoro-an-item?" he asked in one breath.

Chopper's sudden question caused Nami to slip off her elbows and almost face plant on the railing. She turned to the small doctor with a shocked expression on her face. "Who in the hell told you that me and Zoro were an item?" She angrily questioned her younger nakama as she turned around to meet his gaze, knowing that someone had implanted the term 'item' into his head.

Nami could see that Chopper was scared by her reaction and that he was wondering if he should run for cover or not. She could also see that he kept looking for something over by the tree when she noticed a familiar long-nose barely visible. "Dammit Usopp!" She screamed at the sniper. "If you keep putting thoughts into Chopper's head; I'm going to charge you 100,000 beli for all the stress with having to deal with this damn stupidity."

"Everybody run" Usopp started screaming, causing Brook and Usopp to come out of their hiding places and find suitable shelter. "Nami is on a debt rampage!"

A small tick formed on Nami's forehead as she balled her fist. '_I'm going to kick all their asses later._' She thought to herself before letting her fist drop to her side. Looking down to see that Chopper was still there, frozen in fear, Nami let out another sigh before she addressed the young doctor. "No Chopper, Zoro and I are not an item. So you can tell Usopp to stop telling lies about us."

"Oh" Chopper started to say. "That's too bad." He finished with a little disappointment in his voice before he started to walk off.

Hearing his reaction; Nami found herself a little taken aback. "Chopper wait; why did you say that it was too bad?"

Stopping and turning towards Nami; a visible blush formed on Chopper's face as he began to explain the meaning of his words. "We were all talking, and we all thought that it would be kinda neat if you and Zoro were a couple."

Nami's jaw dropped after hearing Chopper's confession. She felt her body start to move on its own as she walked towards him so she could make sure she was hearing him right. "You all..? Do mean everyone?"

"Well… I'm not sure about everyone." He began to answer. "But Luffy, Usopp, Brook, and I were talking about it while you were in the library, and we all think it would be neat. I'm not sure how Robin, Franky, and Sanji feel though."

"Why do you guys feel that way?" Nami asked as she kneeled down to be at Chopper's eye level.

"I don't know why Luffy, Usopp, and Brook feel that way, but for me it's kinda embarrassing." A deeper blush formed on Chopper's face as he went to scratch the back of his head and avert eye contact. When he turned to see Nami's gaze still locked on to his to encourage him to continue; he couldn't help but feel obligated to do so. "After Dr. Hiruluk died and Doctorine took me in; I always had these silly fantasies about if the two would have got married and been my mother and father…"

"That's not silly at all Chopper." Nami told him in a very caring voice. "It's normal to want to have parents that love you. Go on."

"Then after I first joined the crew: Luffy and Usopp told me that the crew was like a family. I always wanted a real family. But no family is complete without parents." Chopper paused wondering if he should continue or not, but after seeing Nami's curious gaze he decided to keep going. "And before Robin and Franky came along; I always kinda saw you and Zoro as the mother and father of the crew."

As Chopper's strange confession registered in Nami's brain; she could only stare at her younger nakama in disbelief. She didn't know whether to be insulted, flattered, or outright creeped out about it. Despite the very awkward feeling she was having at the moment; she had to find out what he meant. "Why would you think of me as the mother of the crew Chopper, or Zoro as the father for that matter? We're only a couple of years older than you, you know?"

"I know, but…" The young reindeer was really at war with himself of whether he should continue or not; he feared that if he said the wrong thing that he would be the next victim of Nami's wrath. Taking another deep breath; he built his resolve and told her why he had felt the way he did. "You've always been the one to tell us what we need to be doing, and when to do it. Plus you're always the one to scold any of us if we do something stupid. Kinda like how a mother would. While Zoro just sits back and lets you do all the motherly stuff until he feels like he has to step in and say something. And he is always the first one to rush to protect someone. Kinda like a father."

A small-thoughtful smile formed on Nami's face as she listened to him, and she slightly nodded her head; showing that she could see the logic in what he was saying. She would never admit it out loud, but sometimes she really did feel like everyone's mother despite not being the oldest member of the crew; which could have been from the fact that most of the crew was so damn childish.

And then there was Zoro: In a lot of ways he was like a male wolf, despite his reputation of being a fierce apex predator, he could be attentive and fiercely protective, especially when it concerned the members of his pack. Chopper was right; Zoro really was like the father of the crew at times.

Seeing Nami's smile; Chopper's confidence started to soar, as his words started to show effect on Nami. "And according to Usopp; you two bicker like an old married couple, which makes you guys perfect to be the mother and the father of the crew." He continued with a big cheeky smile on his face.

But Chopper's smile wouldn't last as Nami's smile disappeared altogether. Instead Nami's smile was replaced by a stern glare as she stood to tower over the small reindeer and a dark aura started to surround her. "We bicker like an old married couple huh?" The navigator asked the young doctor through grit teeth.

As the little reindeer looked at the quickening dark expression forming on her face; his own face started to show genuine fear. He slowly started to walk backwards away from her despite his animal instincts telling him to run from the impending danger that was in front him.

Taking a page out of a female wolf's book; Nami let out what sounded like a loud growl as she suddenly had the urge to 'eat her young' and began to give chase after a terrified Chopper.

-0-0-0-0-

On the landmass: Zoro sat on the ground leaning against the trunk of a tree which had been cleanly cut all the way through. He stared across the small open space that was right in front of him at his opponent who was sitting in a similar position as himself, but was leaning up against a large rock instead. Both of the men's clothes were ripped and tattered, and they were both covered in dirt. The signs of exhaustion were clearly visible as both men breathed heavily in their sitting positions, but they were both otherwise unscathed.

"You're holding back ero-cook." The swordsman said to his rival through heavy breaths.

"Tch, of course I am." Sanji responded. "I would have crushed that damn marimo head of yours at least a dozen times by now if I wasn't."

Zoro watched silently as Sanji reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a cigarette. After lighting it and taking only one drag from it; Sanji moved it away from his mouth and held it out to his side as he savored the feeling of the smoke escaping his lungs. Suddenly the swordsman made a quick swipe of his sword; sending an invisible slash towards his rival to cut the cigarette in his hand off at the butt.

"Dammit you shitty-swordsman, that was my last one!" The cook yelled as he threw what was left of his cigarette to the ground in anger as he glared at Zoro, who only glared back at him with a smug look. "Yeah, yeah… I get it, you were holding back too."

Seeing that the cook understood; Zoro then sheathed his swords, before leaning his head back onto the trunk of the tree behind him. The two rested in their respected spots in silence for several moments, both trying to regain some of their expended energy.

"You're in love with her, aren't you?" The cook asked, breaking the silence.

Zoro removed his head from leaning on the tree to stare at the other man and to gauge Sanji's emotions. He was honestly a little surprised to see a sincere look with no malice or disdain; instead Sanji was giving him a look of understanding, and if he didn't know any better, respect. Seeing no point in lying to the other man; Zoro let out a sigh before answering "I'm not sure. I think I am…" he said truthfully "Does it even matter? It's not like I can act on it anyway."

"Of course it matters baka!" Sanji barked at the swordsman. "It's obvious that Nami-san has feelings for you too." Zoro could only give the cook a questioning look in response. Seeing the first-mate's confusion, Sanji shook his head in disbelief at how dim the other man could be at times. "I've seen the way you two act around each other; how you always get jealous when I flirt with her, or how she always seems to expect just a little more out of you than she does everyone else. It was only a matter of time before the two of you started to realize your feelings for each other. I just didn't think it would take over two damn years."

"And you're fine with this?" Zoro asked other man skeptically.

"Hell no I'm not fine with it!" Sanji snapped back at the marimo. "You're a damn barbarian, who doesn't have any common sense when it comes to how to treat a lady…" Sanji let out a small sigh before continuing. "But when I saw the two of you dancing together in the rain a few nights ago; I knew that I really have no choice in the matter. Nami-san has made her decision. And besides; Nami-san is a beautiful flower in a field of beautiful flowers. And as a gardener of love; if a flower has allowed someone to pick her, it is my duty to allow it because I still have a whole field of flowers that need attending too."

Zoro's good eye narrowed at the man in front of him. "That was really cheesy ero-cook, even for you."

"I'M GIVING YOU MY BLESSING YOU DAMN-SHITTY-MARIMO!" Sanji screamed while jumping to his feet. "Now you better take responsibility for her feelings and show her your own in return baka!"

Zoro started to stand to his own feet before responding to the cook with "Hmph, what makes you think I need your blessing?" He then started to walk towards the 'beach where they docked the Mini Merry II' before turning back towards Sanji and saying "But thanks."

The cook nodded his head towards the swordsman as he shoved his hands in his pocket. "Yeah, whatever marimo; just remember that if you don't treat her right I'll do everything in my power to steal her away from you. One more thing marimo…" Sanji said grabbing Zoro's attention. "The beach is back this way." He stated as he started to walk off in the opposite direction Zoro had been walking.

-0-0-0-0-

The trip back to the Sunny was a loud and argumentative one. And once back on the Sunny; Sanji 'calmly' reminded Zoro that he would not be allowed to eat dinner if he didn't first bathe because "You will not subject lovely Nami-swan or Robin-chwan to your disgusting appearance!" But before Zoro was able to bathe and change into a set of clean clothes, Sanji had beaten him to the bath-house, making the man wait in the library until he was done.

Once Sanji was finished Zoro entered the bath-house, while the cook had went to the kitchen to start and prepare dinner. Upon entering the kitchen Sanji found all of his nakama at the table, minus Nami, discussing about a plan to try and show Zoro and Nami that they were all fine with the idea of the two being together, as well as possibly push the two to the next step.

"I know…" Luffy started to say. "We just get a bunch of meat and…"

"No Luffy… Everything isn't fixed with meat." Usopp scolded his captain. "We should leave notes, with directions on them for the two to meet up in a…"

"But Usopp; Zoro's terrible with directions. He'd probably get lost and that would just make Nami mad, wouldn't it?" Chopper asked his long-nose nakama.

"Good point Chopper." Usopp responded. "Ok, how about this…"

"Why don't we all just grab the two and lock them in the storage-room and see what SUPER things happen?" Franky interrupted.

"Things could get violent if that was to happen Franky-san." Robin informed the cyborg. "Or they might get kinky. Or possibly even both."

"Yohohoho..! I wonder if Zoro-san will get to see Nami-san's pan..." Wham!

Before Brook could finish his statement; Sanji smacked him on top of the head with a frying pan. "If you guys are really trying to show the marimo and Nami-san that you are fine with them being together…" Sanji started to say. "Then you have to do it in a romantic way."

Most of the crew looked at Sanji in shock. They couldn't believe what they were hearing. So Usopp asked aloud to make sure. "Oi Sanji, are you feeling ok? It sounds like you're actually on board with Zoro being with Nami?"

"Make no mistake you idiots." The cook said in a low threatening tone. "I'm not doing this for the damn marimo. I'm doing it for Nami-san." He took a moment to gauge the expressions of the rest of the crew to see that they were all smiling at him for his unselfishness. "Now this is what we are going to do…"

-0-0-0-0-

Once clean and in a new set of clothes; Zoro slowly started to make his way down from the bath-house into the library. Turning from the ladder; he was met by the sight of Nami standing in front of the library door. She had that conflicted look on her face like she was inwardly battling herself on what she was about to say. Zoro just stood firm to wait for her to make the first move.

"Um Zoro… We need to talk." She said trying to avoid eye contact with him.

"No we don't. There is nothing really left to talk about." He said while taking a few steps closer to her.

Feeling like he was brushing her off, Nami decided to try and get more forceful and direct with her words. "Yes we do Zoro. I know when we were in the kitchen earlier I said the two of us could never get together because of how the crew was reacting… but then I had a conversation with Chopper… and I got to thinking about some things… and…"

Frustration started to show on Zoro's face as he listened to her ramble on. He let out a small "Tch" before closing the rest of the gap that was between him and the fiery-navigator. Before she knew what was happening; he reached one arm behind her waist, and the other behind her head to draw her body into his as he smashed his lips onto hers.

At first Nami was shocked by his actions and she put her hands on his chest to push him away. But as he deepened the kiss; she found herself surrendering to it, she removed her hands from his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck to give him her own kiss with the same vigor that he had shown her.

They soon found themselves in a contest to see who could dominate the other's mouth as passion started to take over. Zoro was a little surprised when Nami's feet left the ground and her legs wrapped around his waist so she could eliminate his height advantage. Not being prepared for it; he stumbled backwards until he found his back pressed up against the ladder. He tightened his grip around her waist to make sure that he would not drop her while the two continued their tongue battle.

They would continue their fierce kissing match for what felt like an eternity for the both of them, but was actually only a few moments, until they felt like their lungs would burst from the lack of air. Finally breaking their mouths apart; the two stayed in each other's embrace as they desperately panted for air. Nami would eventually unwrap her legs from Zoro's waist as he loosened his grip around her to make more room for the air that was filling their lungs.

Regaining his composure first; Zoro face would take on a smug grin as he looked down at the still panting mikan-head still in his arms. "Like I said, there is nothing left to talk about." He began telling her in confident tone. "I decided on the way back to the ship earlier that this was gonna happen. If someone on the crew doesn't like it, they will have to learn to get over it."

Nami nodded her head in agreement before resting her head on his chest. "Things are probably gonna get complicated. What happened to keeping them simple?" She asked with a content smile on her face.

"When is anything on this ship ever simple?" He answered, getting a small chuckle from her in response.

Zoro then took his hand and gently placed it on her chin to lift it so that Nami's face was facing his own. He slowly started to lower his head as he realigned his lips with hers to embrace her in another kiss…

But suddenly the library door slammed open as an excited Luffy barged into the room followed by Robin. As the captain and archeologist entered the room, they were met with stern stares from the first-mate and the navigator for interrupting their moment.

But the obvious displeased looks did not affect the young captain as he happily bounded over to his two oldest nakama. "Oi Zoro, Nami…" Luffy greeted the two with his trademark smile across his face. "We're having another party. Isn't that great?"

"Can't you see we're busy baka?" Zoro barked at the rubber-man.

"But you guys don't have time for that right now. You can do that later." Luffy said as he grabbed the two and separated them. "We all need to go and get changed for the party." After finishing his statement; Luffy grabbed Zoro's arm and drug him very quickly out of the library while the swordsman protested in a stream of curses.

Still confused at what had just happened; Nami looked at Robin as the older woman gave her a slight chuckle and approached her before wrapping her arm around Nami's. "Come on Nami-san. We better go and get changed for the party." The archeologist said as she started to direct Nami out of the library and towards the women's quarters.

-0-0-0-0-

Zoro sat on the floor of the men's quarters with his legs crossed under him and his arms crossed over his chest. He was refusing to move from that spot despite Luffy pleading with him. "Sanji said if I don't get you to change he won't let me eat. So come on Zoro." But despite his captain's pouting, Zoro didn't care. He knew his nakama were up to something and he didn't like it.

Moments ago when Luffy dragged him across the lawn deck he had noticed Franky and Usopp building something. They were both wearing formal clothing, with the exception of Franky's speedo, and when they saw Luffy dragging Zoro passed them, they stopped everything they had been doing and had guilty looks on their faces. And as soon as Luffy had dragged them into the men's quarters, Luffy had changed into formal clothing as well.

And every time Zoro asked his captain what the meaning behind the sudden dress up party was; Luffy would just look to his right and purse his lips together and whistle out "I don't know" in an obvious lie. So Zoro didn't care, he wasn't budging from his spot.

-0-0-0-0-

Robin had been pretty cryptic on why they had changed into the formal dresses that they had worn the first night of the competitions, but with complete trust in her nakama, Nami had went along with it anyway.

Once they exited the women's quarters; they were greeted by Sanji, who was wearing his outfit from the first night as well, at the bottom of the stairs. "Good evening mademoiselles. Your table awaits you. Would you allow me the honor of escorting you two lovely ladies to it?" The gentleman cook said with a polite bow.

Nami looked at the cook skeptically as he straightened upward to wait for their answers. "Of course you may Sanji-san." Robin spoke first taking one of Sanji's arms. Nami then noticed Robin nodding at her to do the same. Letting out a small sigh; the mikan-head played along and took Sanji's other arm.

With a beautiful woman on each arm; Sanji desperately fought with himself to not go into full-blown love-cook mode as he led the two across the lawn deck. Every part of him wanted to explode with confessions of love for the women on each of his arms, but he maintained his composure. He had a part to play, and he was going to do it right, it was his plan after all.

As Nami was being led across the deck she noticed that most of it had been covered with a make-shift dance-floor, and that the bench around the forward-mast had been extended into a small stage. Near the entrance to the aquarium bar were a couple of tables and chairs. The tables were covered in a dark-red table-cloth, and on top of each table a candle burned.

On the way to the tables; they passed by Usopp, and Franky who were putting the final touches on the stage attached to the forward-mast, and Brook who was standing nearby observing the two. Nami had noticed that all were dressed in formal clothing.

"And here you are." Sanji said to them as they reached the table. They both removed their arms from Sanji's and sat down. "The entertainment will start shortly once all the guests have arrived. Until then, Garson…" Sanji snapped his fingers to signal a 'waiter' to come to their table before making another polite bow and walking off towards the other three men nearby.

Nami heard the door to the aquarium bar open and small footsteps approach from behind her as Chopper, also in formal wear, rounded the table with two pieces of paper in his hand. "I'll be your waiter this evening. May we start you off with something from our wine menu?" The young reindeer asked the two women sitting at the table as he handed them the two pieces of paper in his hand.

The navigator looked over at her nakama sitting across from her to see if Robin would finally let her know what was going on, but only found the other woman continuing to play along as she browsed over the piece of paper in her hand. Nami pinched the bridge of her nose as she shook her head in disbelief. She was starting to get frustrated by all of her crewmates' little game.

Letting out a sigh (something she found herself doing a lot lately); she glanced down at the piece of paper that Chopper had given her and noticed a small list of wine on it. She was actually surprised at how well it was made: The top of the piece of paper had the words 'Le Gourmet 1000 Sunny' written across it in decorative lettering, and down the sides and at the bottom of the list was a pattern drawn perfectly to make the wine menu appear to be from a quality French-restaurant. She wouldn't admit it to them at the time, but she couldn't help but appreciate all the effort that her nakama were putting into their little show.

Deciding to play along for a little while longer; Nami ordered a glass of white-wine from the menu while Robin ordered a glass of red-wine, before the two handed the menus back to Chopper, who had a slightly confused look on his face. They then watched Chopper scurry over to where Sanji and the rest of the men were standing before they heard the young reindeer confess to him "I don't know what any of these wines are Sanji."

"Oi Usopp, go help Chopper find the wines and make sure to serve Robin-chan and Nami-san." Sanji said a little frustrated. "And will someone tell me where the hell Luffy and the damn marimo are?"

"They still seem to be in the men's quarters Sanji-san?" Brook answered the cook. "I think Luffy-san is having problems convincing Zoro-san to change."

Nami watched from the table as Sanji brought his hands up to rub his temples in frustration before the cook started to give out further orders. "Franky, you come with me. Brook, just get ready to do your job." The navigator continued to watch with great curiosity as Sanji and Franky walked off towards the men's quarters before barging into the room.

"Dammit Luffy! I gave you one simple job and you couldn't even get it done!" The remaining crew members on deck heard Sanji yell from inside the room.

"But he wouldn't do it Sanji. I tried everything. I even told him that we wouldn't get to eat unless he did." Luffy defended.

"Did you ask him or did you order him you baka-captain?" Sanji questioned the young captain.

An awkward silence could be heard from the deck as Usopp and Chopper exited the aquarium bar with the two glasses of wine they were supposed to bring Nami and Robin before they all heard "Oi Zoro, change into your fancy clothes, captain's orders." Luffy said.

"Oh just forget it. Franky give me a hand." –Sanji

"Sure thing cook-bro." –Franky

"Oi, what the hell do you think you're doing ero-cook? GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY CLOTHES!" –Zoro

"Are we gonna have a naked party now?" –Luffy

"No you shitty-rubber-bastard. Just get the damn marimo's good clothes ready. What the hell marimo?! Why aren't you wearing any underwear?!" –Sanji

"Well if I knew you swung that way, and were going to just strip me for no reason, I would have put some on!" –Zoro

"Ow! Free-balling! SUPER manly swords-bro!" –Franky

"Shishishi! See, it is a naked party!" –Luffy

"Would the three of you idiots just let go of me, and I'll put the clothes on myself dammit?!" –Zoro

"Yosh! Zoro's gonna wear his fancy clothes, so now I can go eat. Sanji, FOOD!" –Luffy

A quick thud could be heard before Luffy suddenly went flying out of the men's quarters hard and fast enough to travel the entire distance of the lawn deck and land in the tree with the swing in it. "I'll leave the rest to you cook-bro." Franky said as he left the room.

"I said I'd do it didn't I? You don't have to watch over me ero-cook. –Zoro

"Just hurry the hell up you shitty-swordsman, you're keeping Nami-san waiting." –Sanji

The crew on deck watched for several more moments until Zoro finally appeared on deck wearing the clothes that he had worn during the first dance competition. He was followed by Sanji who after exiting the men's quarters stood by the wall and lit a cigarette. Both men had clear looks of aggravation written across their faces.

Seeing Zoro on the deck; Brook sprang into action, jumped up on the small stage, whipped out his violin from seemingly nowhere, and started to play a slow-romantic-melody. The first-mate looked up at the musician from his spot on the deck with confusion as he tried to piece together what was going on. Nami on the other hand had already figured out what her nakama were up to as a slight thoughtful smile formed on her face.

Deciding to not let the opportunity to have a little fun go to waste, Franky walked over to the table that Nami and Robin were sitting at. "Ow! Nico Robin, can I have this SUPER dance?" The shipwright asked the archeologist with great confidence as he extended his large hand to her.

"Oi, you shitty-cyborg, no one said you could dance with Robin-chwan." Sanji screamed from across the deck.

"I would love to Franky-san." Robin answered him as she took his hand, and let him help her to her feet and out to the dance floor.

Zoro still stood dumbfounded as to what was happening. He looked over at Nami who was giving him an expectant look from her table, then to the other table where Luffy (who had climbed out of the tree), Usopp, and Chopper all sat looking between him and Nami with huge grins on their faces, then Zoro looked back towards Nami who by this time was starting to look irritated and impatient. Zoro still hadn't figured it out even after he felt a small push behind him from Sanji's foot. He turned to glare at the cook to see Sanji glaring right back at him before the cook spoke. "Go. Ask. Her. To. Dance. Baka."

Finally putting all the pieces together; Zoro looked back across the deck towards the mikan-head sitting in front of him before starting to move in her direction. While walking across the deck, his eye met hers, and it was like he was actually seeing her for the first time that night. He noticed how beautiful she looked in her dress while sitting in the candle light. Right at that moment she was even more beautiful than she had been in the moonlight the first night on the island of Shaka. He no longer even noticed the rest of the crew watching him; the only eyes that mattered to him at that point were hers.

As Nami watched Zoro cross the deck she noticed a smile forming on his face. It wasn't the cocky smile that he normally had when he was trying to one-up her; it was a genuine smile, one she knew that was directed only at her. The smile was contagious as she could feel a similar smile forming onto her face as well. She stared intently into his good eye as he made the final approach to the table.

"May I have this dance?" Zoro asked the mikan-head, as he outstretched his hand to her.

Without a moment's hesitation Nami placed her hand in his before answering "Always."

**The End**

**...**

…

…

…

Translation Notes:

Kenbunshoku = Observation

Bento = boxed lunch

Author Notes: Well that's it folks. The end of my first multi-chap. I will write one more bonus chapter just for fun, but the main story is complete.

I would like to take this time to thank everyone who has followed, faved, reviewed, and just plain read this story. It really means a lot to me.

Speaking of thanks; I have to give a VERY SPECIAL CREEPY SANJI-STLYE THANK YOU to **BelleLoveZoro** who made and gave me permission to use my new cover picture for this story. If you would like to see the full picture you should check out her profile or the zoronamifc both at DeviantART. So… THANK YOU **BelleLoveZoro-**SWAN!

Yosh: Ya all should know what to do, but for those that need reminding; thanks for reading and please review.


	10. Bonus Chapter

This is just a bonus chapter that came to mind while I was finishing up my story, and couldn't really think of place for it in the main plot. It is written purely out of fun and in no way effects the main plot of this story. I had a lot of fun writing it and hope you all have fun reading it as well ;]

Still don't own One Piece.

…

…

**Dance the Night Away Bonus Chapter**

Name: Roronoa Zoro

Age: 17

Occupation: Wandering Swordsman (keyword being wandering)

Somewhere in the East Blue: Zoro had been traveling the East Blue for the better part of the year on his quest to become the world's greatest swordsman. During this time he had found himself wandering in a large forest on an uncharted island. He had heard from villagers located on the shore of the island that on the other side of the forest there was another small village that consisted of only swordsmen and swordswomen; so he had ventured into the forest to go find that village to test his might against all these fellow swords-masters. He had been walking through that forest for three days.

Though the forest was quite large; a normal person would have been able to traverse through it in only half a days' time. In fact; I myself had been to this same forest and was able to traverse through it in only an hour, and that was with me having to slay 10… no 100 great beasts along the way… but this story isn't about me, it's about Zoro. So where was I? Oh yes… while traveling through the forest and trying to figure out whether or not he had passed that same tree before; Zoro was suddenly toppled over by a female wood-nymph who had been running and not been paying attention to where she was going.

"Urgh…" Zoro groaned, as he found himself on his back with hazy vision from the impact of the fall. "What the hell just happened?"

As his vision started to clear, and he started to get his bearings; he noticed a weight on his chest. The weight was the figure of the wood-nymph. She was quite small compared to him; judging by the difference in height she was only about 4'5'' (137cm) tall. She had very pale skin with pointed ears, and wore a dark-green dress to match both her hair and her eyes.

"Huh?" The small figure moaned, as she too was hazy and confused from the crash. "Oh my; I'm so sorry." She apologized quickly while jumping to her feet after her vision cleared and she noticed she had been on top of Zoro.

Zoro let out a small grunt to confirm that he accepted her apology as he started to stand to his own feet. Noticing the size of the man in front of her, and his green hair; the wood-nymph's eyes widened and a relieved look replaced her confused face. "Oh thank the forest spirits! You're a fellow wood-nymph! You must help me."

"Eh…" Zoro responded even more confused by what she had just said. "I'm not a wood-nymph. I'm a human."

The young woman looked back at him with a blank expression before saying to him "But you have green hair."

"Dammit! There are people in this world that have orange hair, red hair, blue hair, purple hair, pink hair, silver hair, white hair, and light-green hair! No one says shit about any of their hair colors! They only ever comment about my hair color! Why the hell is my hair considered so damn strange?" Zoro screamed while pointing a threatening finger towards the sky.

…

"Who are you yelling at?" The wood-nymph asked the swordsman.

"Nobody" Zoro said as he lowered his head in defeat before bringing his attention back on to the girl in front of him. "What were you saying about needing help?"

"There is a terrible troll who has been pursuing me. I fear that he may catch up to me at any moment. But since you are not a fellow wood-nymph I couldn't possibly bother you with my troubles."

"A troll huh? Is he strong?"

"Yes, he is very strong." The nymph confirmed.

"This sounds interesting." Zoro said as an amused smile formed on his face. "Alright, I'll help. Just point the way and I'll cut this terrible troll into little pieces."

"Oh no… you can't." The young woman started pleading, which only caused Zoro to get even more confused. "If you kill the troll it would bring destruction on my people. You see… the troll is actually my fiancé. My people made an arrangement with his tribe that the two of us would be married to avoid war when I came of age. I came of age only yesterday and now the troll seeks what was promised to him."

"If I can't kill him, how did you expect me to help when you thought I was a wood-nymph?" Zoro asked in a frustrated tone because it seemed like he no longer had the chance to kill something.

"Well you see…" The wood-nymph started to explain in a very timid voice. "That arrangement is only valid if I had yet to find a suitable husband. And since there are no men in my tribe at the suitable age for me to marry, I thought I was doomed to marry the troll. So I ran. When I saw you, I was gonna ask you to pretend to be my husband."

As Zoro looked down towards the girl, his eyes narrowed with skepticism. He knew he should just bid her farewell and walk away from the whole situation, but a part of him still wanted to help her because of the desperation in her eyes. "And how did you expect to confuse this troll into thinking I was your husband seeing how we don't even know each other?"

"I was going to ask you to perform the Dance of Love with me in front of him." She answered in a matter of fact tone.

"What the hell?" Zoro screamed at her, completely shocked at how bold she was. "We just met! I don't even know your name and you're talking about having sex in front of a troll with a complete stranger! How scary is this damn thing?"

"Sex..?" The girl asked confused. "What is sex? I'm talking about the dance that is shown to all young wood-nymphs by their parents. It is to be performed only with their sole chosen mate, once they come of age."

"And you still don't see a problem with doing this with someone you just met?"

"Well I am kinda desperate. But you know; now since I know you aren't a wood-nymph, the dance wouldn't technically count. So it would be perfect if you performed it with me." The wood-nymph exclaimed with a hopeful look in her eyes. "Oh please help, I beg you."

Zoro looked towards the sky again before saying "This story doesn't even make sense." He then lowered his head before letting out a sigh. "Fine… I'll help you; just tell me what I have to do."

Zoro's response caused the girl to light up. "Really? Thank you so much!" She said cheerily as she embraced him around the midsection in a hug.

"Yeah… Yeah…" Zoro said unenthusiastically, as he removed the girl's arms from around him and separated himself from her. "This is just too damn weird. I don't even know your name."

"My name is Lita. It is a pleasure to meet you." The young woman said in a polite bow. "And what is your name?"

"Roronoa Zoro."

After the two exchanged names they went deeper into the forest so Lita could show Zoro the 'Dance Of Love' which was strangely enough very similar to the 'Classic Waltz'. They practiced for several moments so the two of them could learn how to compensate for the height difference; before being the interrupted by the sound of a voice calling out to the young woman.

"Lita-chwan… where have you gone to my love?"

The female wood-nymph's body went rigid from the sound of the voice, and a terrified expression formed on her face. Zoro was slightly surprised by this because the voice didn't sound threatening in any way. If anything; it sounded like a love sick moron trying to pursue a young woman.

The two stood in place as they could hear soft footsteps approaching their location. Lita, while beginning to shake in fear, quickly got behind Zoro to try and shield herself from the oncoming threat. After several moments the troll finally came into the small clearing that Zoro and Lita had been standing in.

Even more to Zoro's surprise; the troll was nothing like he had envisioned it. He was very well dressed and stood only about 5' (152cm) tall. Besides its ears that pointed out through his long blonde hair that went all the way down his back, and his one visible eyebrow which was long and curled into a spiral pattern; he was actually rather human looking.

Zoro narrowed his eyes as he looked down at the small man in front of him. "This is the troll that you're so scared of?" Zoro addressed Lita as he was pointing a judging finger at said troll.

The troll didn't even bother to look at the swordsman. Instead his vision was caught by the visible green hair standing behind Zoro. "Ah… there you are Lita-chwan. I've been looking all over for you." The small blonde troll said as he sprinted over towards her and Zoro. "I have come to ask for your hand in marriage my love." He said as he dropped down to one knee and extended his hand towards the woman.

"I… I'm sorry Shonto-san." Lita said to the man timidly, while Zoro stood completely still, feeling very awkward. "But I can't marry you. I'm already married."

Shonto's face fell in genuine disappointment after hearing the news from the girl in front of him. "But I don't understand my love. You were engaged to me. Who is the man responsible for stealing your love away from me? Show me this man so I can deem whether he is worthy of your love or not."

Lita gave the young man a confused look before addressing him. "Umm… He is right in front of you Shonto-san. This is my husband Zoro." She explained as she pointed up towards Zoro who only glared down at the troll who had been ignoring him the entire time.

Finally looking up at the swordsman; Shonto's visible eye widened in complete disbelief, causing him to quickly stand and jump backwards to get a better view at the man standing in front of him. "This giant is a wood-nymph? I thought it was a tree. You must be lying to me."

"She already told you that I'm her husband ya little runt." Zoro said firmly, finally joining in on the conversation. "Now why don't you leave her alone and let her be?"

"I still don't believe you." Shonto said, refusing to back down. "If you really are her husband, then you must have performed the dance of love with her. Prove it."

"Tch… Fine" Zoro stated looking down at Lita to confirm that the time had come.

The two took their positions. Because of the height difference Zoro wasn't able to place his non-lead hand on the small of her back and had to settle for placing it in between her shoulders instead. While Lita couldn't place her hand on his shoulder and had to place it on his chest. They each took a deep breath before they began their dance.

The two performed the dance perfectly as Shonto looked on in shock. The troll couldn't help but notice the smile on Lita's face as they performed the practiced routine. If he would have looked up at Zoro's, he would had noticed that Zoro's face was completely serious as if he was in the middle of a battle, but the troll had a habit of only paying attention to women.

The dance came to a stop and the two separated to face their audience. "There… satisfied?" Zoro said gruffly while crossing his arms over his chest.

Realizing that he was being addressed; Shonto snapped out of his shock to look at the much larger man. "Yes" The troll said with disappointment clearly visible on his face. "It is obvious that Lita-chwan has found her one true mate. And therefor I will seek her hand no longer. As long as she is happy, that is all that matters. I will go back to my village, where I might one day find my own true love. Goodbye to you both."

"Thank you for understanding Shonto-san. I hope you find happiness too." Lita said, giving the troll a polite bow, before the troll left the two's presence.

Lita and Zoro watched the troll leave in silence before turning and walking in the opposite direction themselves. Lita had decided to show Zoro the way out of the forest and to the village of swordsmen that Zoro had been looking for as thanks for his help. Once to the edge of the forest, with the village in view; Zoro turned to Lita to bid her a final farewell, but before he did, there had been something bothering him for a little while.

"Besides him being a little annoying, that troll didn't really seem all that terrible, why didn't you want to marry him?" Zoro asked the small wood-nymph.

"Well to be honest" Lita began to answer with a blush on her face. "Shonto-san is actually a really good person, but he is kinda a flirt and just not really my type. But you're my type Zoro-san." The girl admitted while a huge smile overtook her face. "Maybe when you've completed your journey, you can come back and visit me. And then maybe we can have that sex thing you mentioned earlier…"

…WHAM…

-0-0-0-0-

Sanji delivered a thunderous kick to the top of Usopp's head, causing the storyteller to face plant into the dining table in front of him as Luffy, Chopper and Zoro all looked on.

"Ow Sanji, what was that for?" The long-nose voiced his pain.

Sanji pointed a threatening finger at the sniper before listing off all the reasons he had kicked him. "For one: Your damn story didn't make any sense. Two: You made me the damn troll you shitty-long-nose-bastard! And finally: You gave the damn-marimo the girl in the end! It's bad enough I already have to live with the fact that he's involved with my precious Nami-san, I don't need to have to picture the damn bastard being a burden to any other women, fictional or not!"

"But it would only be natural for her to fall for him." Usopp tried to reason. "After all, they did perform the 'Dance of Love' together."

"All you idiots just get the hell out of my kitchen!" The cook screeched out causing Usopp, Chopper, and Luffy to all jump up and flee the kitchen as fast as their feet would carry them. Zoro, who had been sitting quietly for most of the exchange, also stood to leave the kitchen before his rival stopped him. "Not you marimo, it's time for your lesson on how to treat women." The cook's statement caused Zoro to let out a disgruntled groan as he sat back down in his chair.

It had been three weeks since the crew departed from the island of Shaka, and Zoro's romantic relationship with Nami had started. Most of the crew had adapted quickly to the two's open relationship and went back to their daily routines. Even Nami's and Zoro's interactions had pretty much remained the same; they fought and bickered with each other throughout the day, especially in front of the rest of the crew, but it was what happened behind closed doors that changed between the two the most. In fact; it had become an unwritten rule amongst the crew that if neither Zoro nor Nami were on deck, that no one was supposed to go looking for them. Luffy had of course forgotten this several times, and had been the victim of both of their rages on several different occasions.

The only person who hadn't gone back to his normal routine was Sanji. He still openly flirted with both Robin and Nami, as well as fought with Zoro all the time, but he had also taken it upon himself to educate the swordsman on how to properly treat women; going as far to make said swordsman sit through lectures twice a week.

Zoro never really pays any attention to these lectures, and even refused to sit through them at first, but with Sanji's threats of hiding all the alcohol, and the cook's constant hounding; Zoro eventually decided it was easier to just humor the man. He has actually got quite good at tuning Sanji out during these so called lectures.

"Are you listening to me marimo?" Sanji questioned the swordsman on whether or not Zoro had heard anything he had been saying for the last several minutes.

"Not really." Zoro confirmed.

"I'm doing this for your benefit you shitty-swordsman!" Sanji screamed at his rival. "It wouldn't kill you to know how to act a little better around both Nami-san and Robin-chan. How Nami-san finds it in her to put up with you is absolutely amazing. "

"Aren't you the one forgetting that I'm the one with an actual girlfriend? Nami and I get along just fine, especially behind closed doors." Zoro said to the cook to rub in the fact that Nami had chosen him. "Besides; you're so clueless that you haven't even realized that the gloomy-woman has been spoken for as well."

"What was that baka?" Sanji asked wanting to know the meaning behind Zoro's last comment.

"Tch… it was nothing." The swordsman answered with a sly grin.

"Oi, if you know something about my precious Robin-chan you better tell me. Otherwise I'll kick your ass all over this damn ship and…"

"Purupurupuru" "Purupurupuru"

Sanji was cut off by the sound of the Den-Den-Mushi located on the kitchen counter, causing both men to stare at it in curiosity.

"Purupurupuru" "Purupurupuru" It rang again before Sanji moved over towards it to answer it.

Picking up the receiver, Sanji spoke "Ahoy. This is the Shitty-Restaurant, where we treat all our customers like shit, how can I help you?" This was his normal greeting when answering the Den-Den-Mushi just in case of the marines somehow finding their number.

"Don't sass-mouth me you little twerp!" The Den-Den-Mushi answered him in a feminine loud high pitched shrill voice. "Let me talk to Roronoa Zoro!"

Hearing his name from the Den-Den-Mushi caused Zoro to look over at it with a confused face. Sanji had a similar look on his face as he stared at the receiver wondering how the person on the other end knew his rival was on the ship. "May I ask who is calling?" The cook said in the most polite voice he could, after all; despite not knowing who it was, it did seem to be a lady, and he could never be rude to a lady.

"NO YOU MAY NOT!" The voice on the other end screamed very harshly. "NOW PUT RORONOA ON THE LINE RIGHT NOW!"

Growing very intimidated by the voice on the other end; Sanji quickly outstretched the Den-Den-Mushi towards the swordsman, almost begging for him to take it. Zoro looked at it skeptically for a moment before standing up and crossing the room to take it from his rival.

"This is Zoro" he spoke into the receiver in a harsh tone. "Now who the hell is this?"

"RORONOA ZORO! HOW DARE YOU?!" The voice continued to scream out of the Den-Den-Mushi, causing Zoro to stretch it out away from him as he cringed in pain from the ringing in his ears. "Not only have you betrayed the feelings of a young beautiful woman who has pledged her heart to you, but you also abuse what she has taught you with for the entire world to see, you two-timing man-whore."

After hearing the feminine voice on the Den-Den-Mushi say that it had been betrayed by the swordsman; Sanji felt his blood start to boil, and prepared to give his rival a tongue lashing of his own. But before he spoke a single syllable, he stopped himself as he noticed the other man's entire body go rigid, and his once tan skin turn pale white as genuine fear gripped Zoro's face.

"Pa… Parom Sensei?" Zoro questioned through stuttered speech, as his hand holding the Den-Den-Mushi shook rapidly.

"Oh, so you do remember me?" Zoro's old dance instructor confirmed. "Maybe you should have remembered me before you and that orange-haired harlot locked lips on that dance stage. Did you think I wouldn't find out? I still get the monthly copy of 'Dance Piece'."

"Ho… How did you get this number?" Zoro asked the older lady, as he tried to process everything that was happening so quickly.

"Don't worry about that." Parom responded to him. "Instead; do you know how much it costs to hire a Commercial Liner to sail from the East Blue to the New World? You should be worried about what I'm going to do to you and that orange-haired hussy once I get my hands on you!"

"Oi..! Mina*..!" Zoro and Sanji heard Luffy yell from the deck. "I see a ship heading towards us!"

The cook and the swordsman looked at each other for a brief moment before Zoro dropped the Den-Den-Mushi to the floor of the kitchen, and the two then ran out onto the deck to see what their captain was yelling about. After exiting the kitchen; they noticed Luffy pointing over the Starboard rail towards a ship that was heading in their direction. Both Zoro and Sanji quickly crossed over to the bow of the ship where all of their nakama had gathered near the helm.

"Oi Franky!" Zoro screamed at the cyborg that was standing at the helm. "Get us the hell out of here and as far away from that ship as fast as you can!"

The entire crew looked over at the swordsman with confused looks before Franky spoke up. "What's going on swords-bro? What's the big hurry to get away from that ship for?"

"Yeah Zoro" Nami chimed in, curious to know why her lover had the frightened expression on his face. "It doesn't look like a Pirate Ship, and it's certainly not a Navy Battle Ship. It looks like just a common Commercial Liner. Maybe they need help or something. Why else would they be heading towards a Pirate Ship?"

As the Commercial Liner got closer, the crew could see a small figure standing at the bow of the ship. The figure belonged to a short wrinkly old lady with visibly gray hair, and even from the distance they were still at; they could all see the clearly visible angry look on her face as her ship continued to approach theirs. At the sight of his old dance instructor Zoro could feel his chest start to tighten, and it was getting hard for him to breathe as panic started to sink in.

"Mina look" Luffy spoke up, again pointing towards the oncoming ship. "There is a baba* on the ship holding a megaphone."

Lifting the megaphone to her mouth; Parom started barking out orders to her former student and the rest of his unsuspecting nakama. "Roronoa Zoro; you better not even think about running, you stay right there and wait for your punishment. And as for you, you little orange-haired harlot; how dare you put your lips on my man. When I get a hold of you I'm gonna rip out every little hair on that pretty little head of yours!"

Shocked expressions over took the faces of all of the Straw-hats as eyes turned to face the happy couple. "Zoro" Nami spoke to the swordsman. "That isn't your old dance instructor Parom is it?" Zoro could only give her and everyone a slight nod as an answer. "You heard him Franky. Get us the hell out of here!" Nami screamed as the realization of impending danger sunk in.

"Ow! Sure thing Nami-sis!" Franky yelled out as he left the bow to go to the lower levels and make the preparations for their escape. "Once everyone gets the sails tied up they better hold on to something, because this is gonna be SUPER!"

"You heard the man; get those sails tied up!" Nami yelled out, snapping everyone out of their shocked states to get to work.

With the Commercial Liner quickly closing in, the boys finished tying the sails up and then all returned to the bow of the ship. And just as they could all hear the shrill high pitched laugh of Parom growing ever closer; Franky's voice was heard over the intercom. "Are ya all ready? Cause here we go… COUP DE BURST!" With a huge thrust of energy; the Straw-hats and their beloved ship went flying off into the sunset away from another fearsome enemy, leaving the dance instructor Parom to curse at them while she watched them fly off into the distance.

**The End**

**Translation notes****:**

Mina = everyone

Baba = old person

**Author Notes, Plus Poll Request, and Challenge****:**

So there it is people; my bonus chapter that I just couldn't help but write because I couldn't get the idea out of my head otherwise. I hope ya all enjoyed it. Thank you again to everyone who has read this story; all of your guys/gals kind words and encouragement made this entire story even better to write. And a special thank you to **KimuraMinami** for helping me with the baba translation.

For my next project I was hoping to write one of my AU ideas. I have a poll on my profile page where anyone can go vote for which one they want to see first. The general plot descriptions are also given on my profile page under **Stories I Would Like To Write**. And anyone who votes for the Fairy Tale AU (an actual fairy tale, not to be confused with the anime show) I would love to hear suggestions of what I should name it; feel free to PM if you have any suggestions. The polls gonna be up for a while because I plan on writing a couple of one-shots before I get to my next multi-chap; including one for Zoro's upcoming birthday which is November 11th, whew… that's coming up quick, I better get to work on that.

Finally I would also like to take this time to put out a challenge. This challenge if for **EVERYBODY**: I challenge you all to do more for your favorite fandoms (I would love it if all your favorite fandoms were ZoNa, but if it's not, that's okay too). Like a lot of people when I first started reading fanfiction I used to say "There is no way I could ever write one myself. I'm just not that good. No one would want to read it." But then I decided what the hell; I'm not gonna be doing it for money or anything, it's just for fun, what is the worse that could happen? And everyone has been really kind and supportive. So I say to everyone: Write a story, draw a picture, and if you still feel like you can't, then review to some of the stories you read (don't leave nasty/mean reviews, but also don't be afraid to give someone some constructive criticism), become part of the community, you'd be surprised how much fun it is to just talk with other likeminded people. And above all else: Quit telling yourself you can't contribute, because of course you can. The best advice I think I've ever given to anybody is: If you have a big goofy smile on your face while writing/drawing something, most likely the readers/viewers will have a similar big goofy smile on their face too.

Until next time –fmdevil-


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